Academic Procrastination of Spanish Pre-service Teachers during the COVID-19 Pandemic / La procrastinación académica de los estudiantes españoles de formación inicial del profesorado durante la pandemia de COVID-19

The present study seeks to ascertain whether the academic procrastination of university pre-service teachers varied during the COVID-19 pandemic when compared to data collected from another sample (n = 794) taken before the pandemic, and the reasons that might explain this. 910 pre-service teachers responded to the PASS scale, Academic Procrastination Scale, Unintentional Procrastination Scale, Active Procrastination Scale, and the New General Self-Efficacy Scale during the pandemic. The results reflect greater procrastination than for the pre-pandemic sample; 37.8% felt that their procrastination had increased due to the pandemic, which was more evident amongst women, whereas 8.7% reported having procrastinated less, displaying the highest level of self-efficacy. In both instances, the most commonly alleged reasons were greater time management, together with changes they were forced to make in their study habits. We discuss the implications that might need to be considered when planning and organizing teaching, should a similar situation occur again. (AU)

El objetivo de este trabajo es conocer si la procrastinación académica de los estudiantes universitarios de formación del profesorado varió durante la pandemia de COVID-19 en comparación con datos recogidos de otra muestra (n = 794) antes de la pandemia y los motivos que lo justifican. Han participado 910 estudiantes, que respondieron a la escala PASS, la Escala de Procrastinación Académica, la Escala de Procrastinación Involuntaria, la Escala de Procrastinación Activa y la Nueva Escala de Autoeficacia General durante la pandemia. Los resultados indican una mayor procrastinación que la muestra prepandemia. Un 37.8% cree haber aumentado su procrastinación por la pandemia, sobre todo las mujeres, mientras el 8.7% afirman procrastinar menos, siendo los que mayor autoeficacia tienen. En ambos casos, los motivos más frecuentes han sido el disponer de más tiempo, junto a cambios en sus hábitos de estudio. Se comentan las implicaciones para la organización docente en caso de repetirse una situación similar. (AU)

Teacher Training Effectiveness in Self-Regulation in Virtual Environments.

Higher education in the 21st century faces the challenge of changing the way in which knowledge is conveyed and how teachers and students interact in the teaching-learning process. The current pandemic caused by SARS-CoV-2 has hastened the need to face up to this challenge and has furthered the need to approach the issue from the perspective of digitalisation. To achieve this, it is necessary to design training programmes geared towards teaching staff and which address both the use of technology and instructional design aimed at promoting the development of self-regulated learning (SRL) and automatic feedback systems. In this study, work was carried out with 23 teachers (8 inexperienced and 15 experienced teachers) in a training programme conducted through Moodle. The aims were: (1) to test whether there were any significant differences between the behaviour patterns of new teachers compared to experienced teachers, (2) to determine whether clusters of behaviour patterns corresponded to the type of teacher and (3) to ascertain whether the level of teacher satisfaction with the training activity in digital teaching will depend on the type of teacher. A quantitative as well as a qualitative design was applied. Differences were found in the behaviour patterns in the training activities for the development of rubrics and use of learning analytics systems in virtual learning environments. It was also found that the type of teacher did not correspond exactly to the behaviour cluster in the learning platform. In addition, no significant differences were found in the level of satisfaction between the two kinds of teacher. The main contribution this study makes is to provide a detailed description of the training stage as well as the materials required for its repetition. Further analytical studies are required on teacher perception of training programmes in digital teaching in order to provide personalised training proposals that lead to an effective use of teaching in digital environments.

Influence of Some Personal and Family Variables on Social Responsibility Among Primary Education Students.

One of the purposes of education is to help pupils develop a responsible attitude, which is understood to be the capacity to vouch for their actions appropriately and in a way that fits social norms. Training of this type should be intentional, planned, and personalized, which will depend on how developed the individual's social responsibility is. This in turn is influenced by personal and family variables. This article provides an analysis of the interaction of some of those variables with the development of social responsibility in primary education pupils as the basis for the design of programs to promote personal and social responsibility tailored to the features of the pupils. To do this, the Social Responsibility Attitudes Scale was applied to 502 pupils taking grades 2 (8 years old), 4 (10 years old), and 6 (12 years old) of primary education. This scale measures the following factors: (a) obedient in family settings, (b) polite and accepting their mistakes, (c) trust in their parents, (d) responsibility in school setting, (e) friendly and willing to help, and (f) careful of the environment. By carrying out a multivariate analysis with the school grade, gender, family type (single, two-parent), and position among siblings (firstborn, only child, or not firstborn), it was concluded that attitudes related to prosociality start to be differentiated from grade 4 of primary education. It is in grade 6 that children become aware of their responsibility, and this is greater among that from two-parent families. However, no significant differences were found in the level of social responsibility with regard to gender or position among siblings.

Program to Promote Personal and Social Responsibility in the Secondary Classroom.

The performance of school children has been studied by considering partial relationships between several personal variables such as the link between cognition and motivation. However, contextual variables, such as a child's willingness to accept social responsibility, also influence students' social and academic performance. Thus, students with greater responsibility have a better attitude toward their studies, resulting in higher academic achievement. This 2-year study aims to reveal to what extent an intervention program affects student performance and is based on the Theory of Positive Action among young people proposed by Don Hellison and the Theory of Reasoned Action by Fishbein and Ajzen. The program focuses on positive influences on social and personal responsibility, taking into consideration parental styles, gender, and academic performance. The program was a part of the educational curricula in participating schools and it targeted four main areas: (a) teaching units using academic texts about social responsibility, (b) student training in mediation processes, (c) teacher training, and (d) family training and involvement. A total of 271 students took part from first and second year of Secondary Education (12-14 years old). The experimental group was made up of 132 students while the remaining 139 formed the control group. All participants completed the Assessment Scale of Social Responsibility Attitudes in Secondary Education and the Parent-Adolescent Communication Scale. Results show that students in the experimental group performed significantly better than those in the control group. Additionally, the issue of social responsibility seems to be related to commitment, self-discipline and perseverance. Regarding gender, males appear to score higher in the factor for well-mannered, friendly and tidy. Finally, a positive relationship has been identified between social responsibility attitudes and parenting with an open communicational style. This paper discusses the results so that schools can include programs aimed at improving social and personal responsibility.

Peer-Mediated Intervention for the Development of Social Interaction Skills in High-Functioning Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Pilot Study.

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is characterized by difficulties with social interaction and communication, which manifest at school especially in less structured situations such as recess. Recess provides opportunities for relationship with peers in a natural context, for which students with ASD may not be equipped with the necessary skills to use without support. Using a single-case design, we evaluated an intervention applied in recess to improve the social interaction skills of a student with high-functioning ASD mediated by his peers without ASD, in second grade of elementary school. This intervention includes different strategies to initiate the peers without ASD, using direct instruction, modeling, and social reinforcement carried out in the recess setting. After 14 sessions, changes were observed in the rates of initiating and responding to interactions, and a negative trend in the percentage of time that the student maintained low-intensity interactions or was alone. Teachers and family perceived improvements in social skills, more peer acceptance, and increase in the frequency and duration of social interactions. This intervention can help teachers to apply research-based practices to improve some social interaction skills in high-functioning students with autism in inclusive school environments.

School performance and personal attitudes and social responsibility in preadolescent students / Rendimiento escolar y actitudes personales y de responsabilidad social en el alumnado preadolescente

This study focuses on the analysis of the differences observed between students with different levels of academic performance in their social attitudes and personal responsibility towards study, according to various theories and models. Participants were 235 students from the third cycle of Primary Education (10-12 years old). They completed two attitude rating scales: (a) Assessment Scale of Social Responsibility Attitudes of Primary School Pupils (EARSA-P, Monsalvo, 2012b), consisting of 23 items grouped into six factors (obedience in the family, polite and accepting their mistakes, trust in their parents, responsible in school setting, friendly and willing to help and careful of their environment); and (b) Assessment Scale of General Attitudes towards Study E-1 (Morales, 2006), which consists of 15 items grouped into five dimensions (high aspirations, enjoyment of study, study organization, efforts to understand and desire to continue learning). We compared the levels of social responsibility and attitudes toward study according to the level of academic achievement, finding significant group differences in attitudes toward study and responsibility in terms of academic achievement

Este trabajo se centra en el análisis de las diferencias observadas entre alumnos de diferente nivel de rendimiento, en las actitudes de responsabilidad social y personales hacia el estudio, según diversas teorías y modelos. Han participado 235 alumnos de tercer ciclo de Educación Primaria, a los que se aplicaron dos escalas de evaluación de actitudes: (a) la Escala de Evaluación de las Actitudes de Responsabilidad Social del Alumnado de Educación Primaria (EARSA-P, Monsalvo, 2012b), formada por 23 ítems agrupados en seis factores (obediencia en el entorno familiar, educado y aceptación de sus errores, confianza en sus padres, responsable en el entorno escolar, amigable y dispuesto a la ayuda y cuidadoso con su medio ambiente); y (b) la Escala de Evaluación de Actitudes generales hacia el Estudio E-1 (Morales, 2006), formada por 15 ítems agrupados en cinco dimensiones (nivel alto de aspiraciones, gusto por el estudio, organización del estudio, esfuerzo por comprender y deseo de seguir aprendiendo). Se compararon los niveles de responsabilidad social y las actitudes hacia el estudio en función del grado de rendimiento académico, encontrando diferencias significativas en las actitudes hacia el estudio y en la responsabilidad entre los grupos en función del rendimiento académico