RESUMO
This study aims to characterize the strategies researchers used to cope with Covid-19 impact and to explore the relationship between those strategies, researchers' characteristics and the pandemic impact in their lives. 721 researchers, proportionally distributed among three Spanish regions, answered an online survey on the pandemic impact on their activity. Scales referred to social support, productivity, research tasks, working conditions, and work and personal life balance. An open-ended section was included to collect the strategies they used to cope with the pandemic consequences. 1528 strategies were content analysed and categorised based on their purposes and related to the rest of the impact variables. Results show the predominance of some strategies for the whole sample both at the work level, such as organizing work duties and plans, and at the personal level, such as maintaining life-work balance and improving personal well-being. Results stress to what extent a strategic approach contributed to minimize contextual issues or constraints even in an extreme situation as the Covid-19 pandemic and lockdown. A non-strategic approach, consisting of just reacting emotionally or dropping research, was the less effective way to maintain interest in research, sustained work and productivity and to warrant work-life balance. Developing a strategic approach was easier for those without caring responsibilities and for men. Women in our study, especially with caring responsibilities, had reduced opportunities to continue with their careers during the pandemic. No evidence of institutional strategies supporting researchers to cope with the situation was found.
RESUMO
Una de las actividades habituales de los alumnos de educación secundaria obligatoria es la que genéricamente denominamos "estudio" que, casi siempre, es un requisito indispensable para superar la evaluación de una materia o un curso. La investigación ha puesto de manifiesto que el estudio estratégico y eficaz se caracteriza por un uso flexible de los procedimientos de aprendizaje en función de los conocimientos previos pero también en función de las demandas y los objetivos que guían la actuación en situaciones específicas. Para conocer si los estudiantes de secundaria abordan el estudio de forma estratégica y eficaz, diseñamos una investigación en la que se analizó la interpretación y la actuación de una muestra de 149 estudiantes de secundaria obligatoria (muestra final) enfrentados a dos tareas de estudio diferentes. Los resultados muestran que, aunque los alumnos declaran conocer procedimientos variados, los que usan más frecuentemente ante cualquier tarea de estudio son los de adquisición de la información. Además, un porcentaje elevado de estudiantes, en las dos tareas, abordaron el estudio e interpretaron las tareas sin tener en cuenta la demanda con que fueron formuladas. Por otro lado, la utilización de procedimientos más complejos (como los de elaboración y análisis de la información) y su uso estratégico en la actividad de estudio, fueron variables que influyeron positivamente en la resolución de tareas que implican la organización de la información a partir del texto estudiado.
Studying is one of the most usual tasks in Secondary Education and almost always it is a requirement for students to be assessed. Research has shown that the strategic and efficient ways to study are characterised by a flexible use of the students' learning procedures, not only on the basis on previous knowledge, but also on the basis of the activities demands and learning objectives in situated contexts. In order to know how secondary students face up to study strategically, the interpretation and activity of 149 students (final sample) when studying two texts with different task demands and aims were analysed. The results showed that acquisition procedures were the most frequently used in both tasks, despite students' declarative knowledge about alternative procedures. Moreover, a high percentage of students interpreted both tasks without taking into account its specific demand. On the other hand, the use of more complex procedures and a high level of awareness about procedural knowledge were variables positively related with solving comprehension tasks which involve the students' personal elaboration and organization of the information.
