Search

Higher Education is demanding the need of a greater connection between its academic offer and the necessary civic engagement of the graduates. This has given Spain the opportunity, for just over a decade, to develop the methodology of service-learning, which combines both the theoretical and practical aspect of university learning with the practical development of solidarity and civic commitment of the students. At the Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia (UNED, Spain) we have designed an online service-learning proposal, based on the virtual exchange which occurs between the students from the UNED and the University of PortoNovo (Benin), requiring practical classes of Spanish. The result favours continuing with this virtual servicelearning project aimed at the exchange with other universities; strengthening the planning of the training proposal for the development of ethical competence and civic engagement; the design of solidarity service action that enhances global citizenship and intercultural dialogue, consolidates digital competence, etc., all in a virtual educational environment.

Copyright of REICE. Ibero-American Journal on Quality, Effectiveness & Change in Education / REICE. Revista Iberoamericana Sobre Calidad, Eficacia y Cambio en Educación is the property of Red Iberoamericana de Investigacion sobre Cambio y Eficacia en Educacion and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

In an editorial the author notes the honorable recognition for the Spanish periodical "Educación XX1" and discusses the impact of scientific periodicals in Spain. The author discusses Spain's need to make periodicals available to the international community. Other topics include social sciences, humanities studies, and the development of technology in Spain.

The Spanish scientific journals on education have experience an exponential growth in recent decades. The reasons are closely related to the supranational policies of university quality assessment, with specific emphasis on research output with "impact". This way, in just twenty years, Spanish journals have become, in detriment of books, in the main channel of communication of the also increasing educational research. In an extremely competitive global context, dominated by Anglo-Saxon culture, the Spanish journals have made a significant improvement in the quality of editorial management processes, in accordance with international quality indicators. However, access to the most recognized indexing, such as Web of Science or Scopus, and especially competing in impact factor (number of citations), is a mission almost impossible for our journals. This article focuses, on the one hand, on the evolution of the Spanish educational journals, the analysis of its growth and its international presence. On the other hand, quality indicators and the indexing that categorize journals, both nationally and globally, as well as its problems and limitations, are discussed. It is a descriptive study that analyzes indicators and classifications of various selective data bases consulted through documentary and digital sources. Finally, it presents a prediction of the short term evolution of impact metrics (altrimetrics) and how they should be addressed. It also discusses the importance of establishing government policies on the assessment of research that are transparent and in accordance with the area where there is a need to combine our scientific production in Spanish and international journals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]