Psychometric properties of the Brazilian-Portuguese Flow State Scale Short (FSS-BR-S).

"Flow experience" is a term used to describe the state of being fully immersed in what you are doing. The Flow State Scale (FSS-2) was developed to assess how people feel when they are in the flow state while participating in certain sports activities. The goal of this study was to obtain a short adapted version of the FSS-2 for the Brazilian-Portuguese language and for general activities (FSS-BR-S). To do this, we translated it both ways (forwards and backwards) and verified that the translation was accurate. Methods: After getting answers from 396 Brazilian participants, we performed (1) the construct validity of the FSS-BR-S and (2) the psychometric item quality analysis. The confirmatory factorial analysis shows that a FSS-BR-S factorial model is the best fit for the data (χ2 = 44.36, p = .023, df = 27, χ2/df = 1.64, CFI = 0.99, TLI = 0.98, and RMSEA = 0.04). Reliability tests done in this structure show that the FSS-BR-S (which only has nine items) has good internal consistency. The item quality analysis reveals that its difficulty and differentiating parameters are good for estimating the overall flow state. The test information curve for the short version demonstrates that it is very useful for estimating the flow states of each disposition. Discussion and Conclusions: Based on these findings, we can conclude that the FSS-BR-S has demonstrated sufficient validity to be used with Brazilians.

Advancing school dropout early warning systems: the IAFREE relational model for identifying at-risk students.

Introduction: There is a global effort to address the school dropout phenomenon. The urgency to act on it comes from the harmful evidence that school dropout has on societal and individual levels. Early Warning Systems (EWS) for school dropout at-risk student identification have been developed to anticipate and help schools have a better chance of acting on it. However, several studies point to a doubt that Correct EWS may come too late because they use only publicly available and general student and school information. We hypothesize that having a tool to assess more subjective and inter-relational factors would help anticipate where and when to act to prevent school dropout. This study aimed to develop a multidimensional measure for assessing relational factors for predicting school dropout (SD) risk in the Brazilian context. Methods: We performed several procedures, including (a) the specialized literature review, (b) the item development of the Relational Factors for the Risk of School Dropout Scale (IAFREE in Portuguese), (c) the content validity analysis, (d) a pilot study, and (e) the administration of the IAFREE to a large Brazilian sample of high school and middle school students (N = 15,924). Results: After the theoretical steps, we found content validity for five relational dimensions for SD (Student-School, Student-School Professionals, Student-Family, Student-Community, and Student-Student) that include 12 facets of risk factors. At the empirical stage, confirmatory analysis corroborated the proposed theoretical model with 12 first-order risk factors and 5 s-order dimensions (36 items). Further, through the Item Response Theory analysis, we assessed the individual item parameters of the items, providing a brief measure without losing psychometric quality (IAFREE-12). Discussion: We discuss how this model may fill gaps in Correct EWS models and how to advance it. The IAFREE is a good measure for scholars investigating the risk of SD. These results are important for implementing an early warning system for SD that looks into the complexity of the school dropout phenomenon.

Validation and psychometric properties of the Brazilian-Portuguese dispositional flow scale 2 (DFS-BR).

INTRODUCTION: Flow state is a psychological concept used to describe the optimal engagement in different activities. Therefore, the DFS-2 has been developed as an instrument to measure an individual's dispositional tendency to flow state as a personality trait. OBJECTIVE: Aiming to obtain an adapted version of the DFS-2 for the Brazilian-Portuguese language (DFS-BR) and for general activities, we performed its forward- and backward-translation, and we validated it. METHODS: After gathering answers from 681 Brazilian participants, we performed: (1) the construct validity of the DFS-BR; and (2) the psychometric item quality analysis. RESULTS: the Confirmatory Factorial Analysis (CFA) indicates the best fit for the gathered data is a nine multi-correlated factorial model (χ2/df = 4.23, CFI = 0.94, TLI = 0.93 and RMSEA = 0.069). Reliability tests performed in this structure indicates excellent internal consistency for the DFS-BR. The item quality analysis indicates that its difficulty and discriminating parameters have a good endorsement to estimate the dispositional flow state. Additionally, we proposed and validated a short version of the DFS-BR (composed of only nine items). The validation results indicates good fit (χ2/df = 2.94, CFI = 0.98, TLI = 0.97 and RMSEA = 0.053) and good internal consistency. The Test Information Curve of the short version indicates that it is very informative in the estimation of individual dispositional flow state. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS: In view of these results, we conclude that the DFS-BR showed good evidence of its validity to be used with Brazilian people. We also suggest the use of a short version when we need only measure the person's flow state based on the principle of Occam's razor. This principle is supported by the analysis presented in this article.

A utilização da Teoria da Autodeterminação no Brasil: um mapeamento sistemático da literatura / The use of Self-Determination Theory in Brazil: a systematic mapping of the literature / El uso de la Teoría de la Autodeterminación en Brasil: un mapeo sistemático de la literatura

A Teoria da Autodeterminação (TAD) é uma teoria da motivação desenvolvida por Deci e Ryan, que pode ser aplicada em diversos contextos. O objetivo deste estudo é analisar as produções acadêmicas brasileiras à luz de Teoria da Autodeterminação. Foi realizado um mapeamento sistemático da literatura brasileira nas bases de dados online SciELO, PePSIC, Index Psi, LILACS e PsycINFO, com os descritores "Teoria da Autodeterminação" e "Self-Determination Theory AND Brazil OR brazilian". A análise qualitativa foi realizada segundo a Análise de Conteúdo de Bardin. O banco final foi composto por 43 artigos, a maioria empíricos (38), sendo o estudo mais antigo do ano de 2004, enquanto os anos de 2012 a 2014 obtiveram o número máximo de publicações por ano (05). Ganham destaque os trabalhos nas regiões Sul (31) e Sudeste (12). As áreas da Psicologia (23) e Educação Física (08) são as que mais se interessam em estudar a TAD. A análise qualitativa permitiu a identificação de dois eixos temáticos: (1) Validação de Construto e (2) Investigação da Motivação e suas relações. Este estudo ampliou o conhecimento acerca do estudo da TAD no Brasil, na medida em que evidenciou sua utilização no contexto brasileiro.

The Self-Determination Theory (SDT) is a theory of motivation developed by Deci and Ryan (1975/1981), which can be applied in many contexts. The aim of this study is to analyze the Brazilian academic productions based on Self-Determination Theory. A systematic mapping of the Brazilian literature was performed in the online databases SciELO, PePSIC, Index Psi, LILACS and PsycINFO, with the descriptors "Theory of Self-Determination" and "Self-Determination Theory AND Brazilian OR Brazilian". The qualitative analysis was performed according to the Bardin Content Analysis. The final bank comprised 43 articles, mostly empirical (38), the oldest study was from the year 2004 and the years between 2012 and 2014 obtained the maximum number of publications per year (05). Noteworthy are the studies in the South (31) and Southeast (12) regions. The areas of Psychology (23) and Physical Education (08) are the most interested in studying the SDT. The qualitative analysis allowed the identification of two thematic axes: (1) Construct Valida-tion and (2) Motivation Investigation and its relations. This study expanded the knowledge about the study of SDT in Brazil as it established its use in the Brazilian context.

La Teoría de la Autodeterminación (TAD) es una teoría motivacional desar-rollada por Deci y Ryan (1975/1981), que puede ser aplicada en muchos contextos. El objetivo de este estudio es analizar las producciones académicas brasileñas a la luz de la teoría de la autodeterminación. Se realizó un mapeo sistemático de la literatura brasileña en las bases de datos online SciELO, PePSIC, Index Psi, LILACS y PsycINFO, con los descriptores "Teoría de la autodeterminación" y Self-Determination Theory AND Brazil OR brazilian". El análisis cualitativo se realizó de acuerdo con el análisis de contenido de Bardin. El banco final consistió en 43 artículos, en su mayoría empíricos (38), el estudio más antiguo fue del año 2004, entre los años 2012 y 2014 se obtuvieron el número máximo de publicaciones por año (05). Son dignos de mención los estudios en las regiones Sur (31) y Sudeste (12), las áreas de Psicología (23) y Educación Física (08) son las más interesadas en estudiar el TAD. El análisis cualitativo permitió la identificación de dos ejes temáticos: (1) Validación de constructo y (2) Investigación de la motivación y sus relaciones. Este estudio amplió el conocimiento sobre el estudio de TAD en Brasil, evidenciando su uso en el contexto brasileño.

GaTO: An Ontological Model to Apply Gamification in Intelligent Tutoring Systems.

Intelligent Tutoring Systems (ITSs) are concerned with the use of artificial intelligence techniques for performing adaptive tutoring to learners' according to what they know about the domain. Researchers are increasingly interested in applying gamification in e-learning systems to engage students and to drive desired learning behaviors. However, little attention has been drawn to the effective application of gamification in ITS, and how to connect theories of both concepts in a standard and formal way. Moreover, gamified ITS should manipulate a huge amount of knowledge regarding several models, i.e., gamification, domain, student and pedagogical models. Formally connecting such theories as well as representing system's knowledge relies on the use of ontologies. In this paper, we present an ontological model that connects gamification and ITS concepts. Our model takes advantage of ontologies to allow automated reasoning (e.g., on the domain, student, pedagogical or gamification models), to enable interoperability, and create awareness about theories and good practices for the designers of gamified ITS. To evaluate our model, we use an ontology evaluation method based on five knowledge representation roles. We also illustrate how it could support the development of an intelligent authoring tool to design gamified ITS.

Dataset of two experiments of the application of gamified peer assessment model into online learning environment MeuTutor.

In this dataset, we present the collected data of two experiments with the application of the gamified peer assessment model into online learning environment MeuTutor to allow the comparison of the obtained results with others proposed models. MeuTutor is an intelligent tutoring system aims to monitor the learning of the students in a personalized way, ensuring quality education and improving the performance of its members (Tenório et al., 2016) [1]. The first experiment evaluated the effectiveness of the peer assessment model through metrics as final grade (result), time to correct the activities and associated costs. The second experiment evaluated the gamification influence into peer assessment model, analyzing metrics as access number (logins), number of performed activities and number of performed corrections. In this article, we present in table form for each metric: the raw data of each treatment; the summarized data; the application results of the normality test Shapiro-Wilk; the application results of the statistical tests T-Test and/or Wilcoxon. The presented data in this article are related to the article entitled "A gamified peer assessment model for on-line learning environments in a competitive context" (Tenório et al., 2016) [1].