This chapter investigates how students use reading and writing as tools for learning in Secondary... more This chapter investigates how students use reading and writing as tools for learning in Secondary and Higher Education. Some research supports the hypothesis that when reading and writing are used together, in hybrid tasks, they become more powerful learning tools than when employed separately. This chapter analyses the relationships between personal variables (prior knowledge, reading and writing competence) and contextual variables (different types of hybrid tasks, summary and synthesis), on the one hand, and the processes performed by the participants and the products they created, on the other. The best products (summaries and syntheses) were associated with a pattern of procedures in which the students made more recursive and flexible use of reading and writing. The students at the higher levels of the educational system used more complex and appropriate procedures than the students at the lower levels, whose procedures were simpler and more direct. Keywords: higher education; secondary education; writing competence
Papeles de Trabajo sobre Cultura, Educación y Desarrollo Humano, 2014
This work describes some of the consequences of new regulations on nurseries in Madrid area that ... more This work describes some of the consequences of new regulations on nurseries in Madrid area that are related to ratios and group size (especially after the decretory 18/2008). Analyses are based on educators and education staff's point of view. Special emphasis is made on consequences on children behavior. Two hundred and seventy seven professionals that belonged to more than 53 nurseries of Madrid area voluntarily answered a survey with open questions about educative process and child's behavior. Qualitative and quantitative analyses show that, from educator's point of view, increasing ratio child-educator has consequences in the variables explored. Main effects were found for the activities made in classrooms (loosing educative standards), hygiene and supply routines (loosing intrinsic values and autonomy support), space and time distribution, support staff organization and relation with families (reduced to quick information interchanges). Directors, classroom tutors and support educators perceive these changes in a similar fashion. The vast majority perceived changes on children's behavior-increases in the number of conflicts and anxiety. These results agree with previous research on the influence of child-educators ratios and group size on quality of education. Implications for child development are discussed.
Introducción. En este articulo nos centramos en la naturaleza de los géneros escritos más usados ... more Introducción. En este articulo nos centramos en la naturaleza de los géneros escritos más usados en la universidad y cómo se utilizan en los procesos de enseñanza y aprendizaje. Método. Se realizó un estudio descriptivo sobre las percepciones del profesorado universitario respecto a los siguientes aspectos relacionados con la escritura académica: el grado de importancia en el aprendizaje, el grado de competencia que atribuyen a sus estudiantes en el dominio de la escritura académica en comparación con otras competencias, el tipo de tareas de escritura más habituales y los criterios utilizados para evaluar la calidad de un texto académico. Los participantes fueron 106 profesores de 4 universidades españolas que respondieron a una versión traducida y adaptada del Writing Skills Appreciation Inventory. Resultados. Los resultados ofrecen un panorama complejo. Por un lado, si bien los profesores valoran la escritura como una herramienta útil para aprender en sus respectivas disciplinas, ...
The objective of this study was to identify and characterize the reading and writing tasks that u... more The objective of this study was to identify and characterize the reading and writing tasks that university students perform to learn, taking into account the discipline (sciences vs humanities) and the support used (printed vs digital). Four hundred and four students completed an online questionnaire that included 13 tasks which involved reading-writing to learn the contents of the subject. The tasks varied according to their level of complexity, the number and type of sources needed, the level of composition required and the degree to which the information from the sources was processed. Students indicated performing, with higher frequency, tasks that promoted more superficial learning. Humanities students mentioned carrying out tasks that promoted deeper processing. Regarding the format of the materials used, science students reported using the digital format more frequently. However, printed support seemed to be more commonly used when students performed tasks to learn in a relat...
Introduction. The aim of this study was to analyse the role of epistemological beliefs and readin... more Introduction. The aim of this study was to analyse the role of epistemological beliefs and reading beliefs in the comprehension of multiple texts which presented conflicting positions about a controversial topic (nuclear energy). More specifically, we investigated the influence of the multidimensional configuration of epistemological and reading beliefs on multiple text comprehension. Method. The participants were 476 university students from two different Spanish universities, and diverse studies (Humanities, Health Sciences, Architecture and Engineering). In a whole-class session, the Epistemological Beliefs Questionnaire (EQEBI) and the Reader Belief Questionnaire were first administered. In the second part of the session participants completed the prior knowledge questionnaire and performed the multiple text comprehension task. Results. Using cluster analysis we identified two distinct beliefs profiles: sophisticated, in which the more sophisticated epistemological beliefs were associated to more transactional and less transmissive reading beliefs; and naïve, in which the more naïve epistemological beliefs were associated to less transactional and more transmissive reading beliefs. Relationships were found between profiles and gender and domain of knowledge. In addition, after controlling prior knowledge, students with a more sophisticated epistemological and reading beliefs' profile obtained a higher level of multiple text comprehension than those with a more naïve profile. Conclusion. Consistent with prior research, we may interpret that students who understand knowledge in a more sophisticated way tend to view reading less as a transmissive process and more transforming of knowledge; therefore, they get involved in a deeper comprehension of the different sources and this favours their ability to process information and make inferences-at an intra and inter textual level.
Electronic Journal of Research in Educational Psychology, 2016
Introduction. The aim of this study was to analyse the role of epistemological beliefs and readin... more Introduction. The aim of this study was to analyse the role of epistemological beliefs and reading beliefs in the comprehension of multiple texts which presented conflicting positions about a controversial topic (nuclear energy). More specifically, we investigated the influence of the multidimensional configuration of epistemological and reading beliefs on multiple text comprehension. Method. The participants were 476 university students from two different Spanish universities, and diverse studies (Humanities, Health Sciences, Architecture and Engineering). In a whole-class session, the Epistemological Beliefs Questionnaire (EQEBI) and the Reader Belief Questionnaire were first administered. In the second part of the session participants completed the prior knowledge questionnaire and performed the multiple text comprehension task. Results. Using cluster analysis we identified two distinct beliefs profiles: sophisticated, in which the more sophisticated epistemological beliefs were associated to more transactional and less transmissive reading beliefs; and naïve, in which the more naïve epistemological beliefs were associated to less transactional and more transmissive reading beliefs. Relationships were found between profiles and gender and domain of knowledge. In addition, after controlling prior knowledge, students with a more sophisticated epistemological and reading beliefs' profile obtained a higher level of multiple text comprehension than those with a more naïve profile. Conclusion. Consistent with prior research, we may interpret that students who understand knowledge in a more sophisticated way tend to view reading less as a transmissive process and more transforming of knowledge; therefore, they get involved in a deeper comprehension of the different sources and this favours their ability to process information and make inferences-at an intra and inter textual level.
A partir de sus conclusiones, se presenta un análisis crítico de la metodología y de los supuesto... more A partir de sus conclusiones, se presenta un análisis crítico de la metodología y de los supuestos básicos de cada uno de los acercamientos. Por último, se presenta un estudio empírico exploratorio que ilustra la aplicación de estos métodos al área de la Psicología clínica.
At European universities, writing is a traditional way of learning, assessment, and independent s... more At European universities, writing is a traditional way of learning, assessment, and independent study, but it is handled in an implicit, tradition-based way that has only recently been contrasted with and supported by a more explicit writing ped-agogy. Still, little systematic knowledge is available about the pedagogical ap-proaches to writing, writing practices, and genres across Europe and much of it is codified in the national languages without correlation to internationally accept-ed terminology and theories. This book explores the writing cultures of Europe, nation by nation, and reports the idiosyncrasies for each respective country. The reports are based on a 17-item topic list used by the authors to collect data be-fore synthesizing the results. Next to writing practices and genres, a high level of emphasis was placed on the structure of educational systems, the languages in use, and the kind of support provided for student writers.
L'estudi presentat es part d'una recerca sobre les tasques de lectura i escriptura que el... more L'estudi presentat es part d'una recerca sobre les tasques de lectura i escriptura que els estudiants duen a terme per aprendre continguts en l'ambit cientific i humanistic. Hi van participar 349 estudiants dels dos ambits de coneixement. Mitjancant un questionari on-line es van copsar les seves representacions sobre diverses tasques. Es va demanar si els professors les avaluaven, si informaven dels criteris concrets d'avaluacio i si oferien ajudes. Els resultats indiquen que, a banda d'existir diferencies entre el tipus de tasques que es realitzen en ambdos ambits de coneixement, tambe hi ha diferencies en la mesura en que s'informa sobre que s’avaluara i en les ajudes que es proporcionen.
La escritura de sintesis a partir de multiples fuentes es una tarea que requiere la integracion d... more La escritura de sintesis a partir de multiples fuentes es una tarea que requiere la integracion de ideas de diferentes posiciones y promueve la transformacion del conocimiento (Segev-Miller, 2007), especialmente cuando los estudiantes se enfrentan a posiciones contradictorias, pues la necesidad de contrastar e integrar diferentes perspectivas facilita el conflicto cognitivo y podria promover un aprendizaje mas constructivo (Mateos y cols., 2014). El uso de guias, disenadas para facilitar la puesta en marcha de los procesos cognitivos y metacognitivos que subyacen a la elaboracion de sintesis argumentativas, puede ser un recurso util para que el alumnado elabore sintesis de mejor calidad. Estudios previos han puesto de manifiesto una mejora en la estructura y calidad de las sintesis cuando los estudiantes recibian un programa de intervencion que incluia como componente una guia grafica, en comparacion con la instruccion tradicional (Kirkpatrick y Klein, 2009). A este respecto, este e...
Scientific literacy can be promoted through oral and written argumentative practice. Collaborativ... more Scientific literacy can be promoted through oral and written argumentative practice. Collaborative discourse has proven effective in fostering conceptual understanding, especially when discussions are developed under deliberative goals. Likewise, writing tasks as argumentative syntheses stand out for its epistemic value and its contribution to constructive learning processes. However, there are no known educational interventions that have combined these two didactic activities to teach science. The objective of this research was to compare the impact of four intervention programs, based on deliberative dialogues and argumentative synthesis writing activities, on the learning of socio-scientific content. The four programs resulted from the combination of two instructional components (Explicit Instruction; Guide), while deliberative dialogues and argumentative syntheses were constant elements. We conducted a pre-post quasi-experimental study in which participated 151 Spanish third gra...
In this study, university students are faced with the task of collaboratively writing an argument... more In this study, university students are faced with the task of collaboratively writing an argumentative synthesis from multiple sources. Specifically, in writing, they must integrate conflicting information on a particular issue obtained from reading two texts that present different perspectives. As research in this field has shown, university students' transactional beliefs about writing have a bearing on the quality of the texts that they write. In addition, studies on collaborative learning have demonstrated the role of constructive strategies in addressing controversy. Constructive strategies require an epistemic approach, which implies understanding and integrating opposing positions and rationales. Therefore, the specific aims of the study are to analyze the relationships between the following: (a) writing beliefs and the joint written synthesis, b) writing beliefs and the strategies used to address the controversies that emerge during collaborative writing, and (c) how students resolve controversies and the quality of their joint syntheses. The participants were 52 fourth-year psychology students at a state-run university in Madrid. The results show that transactional writing beliefs are associated with both the controversy strategies employed by members of student dyads and the quality of the joint syntheses. Furthermore, the strategies for addressing controversy are associated with the quality of the joint syntheses.
This chapter investigates how students use reading and writing as tools for learning in Secondary... more This chapter investigates how students use reading and writing as tools for learning in Secondary and Higher Education. Some research supports the hypothesis that when reading and writing are used together, in hybrid tasks, they become more powerful learning tools than when employed separately. This chapter analyses the relationships between personal variables (prior knowledge, reading and writing competence) and contextual variables (different types of hybrid tasks, summary and synthesis), on the one hand, and the processes performed by the participants and the products they created, on the other. The best products (summaries and syntheses) were associated with a pattern of procedures in which the students made more recursive and flexible use of reading and writing. The students at the higher levels of the educational system used more complex and appropriate procedures than the students at the lower levels, whose procedures were simpler and more direct. Keywords: higher education; secondary education; writing competence
Papeles de Trabajo sobre Cultura, Educación y Desarrollo Humano, 2014
This work describes some of the consequences of new regulations on nurseries in Madrid area that ... more This work describes some of the consequences of new regulations on nurseries in Madrid area that are related to ratios and group size (especially after the decretory 18/2008). Analyses are based on educators and education staff's point of view. Special emphasis is made on consequences on children behavior. Two hundred and seventy seven professionals that belonged to more than 53 nurseries of Madrid area voluntarily answered a survey with open questions about educative process and child's behavior. Qualitative and quantitative analyses show that, from educator's point of view, increasing ratio child-educator has consequences in the variables explored. Main effects were found for the activities made in classrooms (loosing educative standards), hygiene and supply routines (loosing intrinsic values and autonomy support), space and time distribution, support staff organization and relation with families (reduced to quick information interchanges). Directors, classroom tutors and support educators perceive these changes in a similar fashion. The vast majority perceived changes on children's behavior-increases in the number of conflicts and anxiety. These results agree with previous research on the influence of child-educators ratios and group size on quality of education. Implications for child development are discussed.
Introducción. En este articulo nos centramos en la naturaleza de los géneros escritos más usados ... more Introducción. En este articulo nos centramos en la naturaleza de los géneros escritos más usados en la universidad y cómo se utilizan en los procesos de enseñanza y aprendizaje. Método. Se realizó un estudio descriptivo sobre las percepciones del profesorado universitario respecto a los siguientes aspectos relacionados con la escritura académica: el grado de importancia en el aprendizaje, el grado de competencia que atribuyen a sus estudiantes en el dominio de la escritura académica en comparación con otras competencias, el tipo de tareas de escritura más habituales y los criterios utilizados para evaluar la calidad de un texto académico. Los participantes fueron 106 profesores de 4 universidades españolas que respondieron a una versión traducida y adaptada del Writing Skills Appreciation Inventory. Resultados. Los resultados ofrecen un panorama complejo. Por un lado, si bien los profesores valoran la escritura como una herramienta útil para aprender en sus respectivas disciplinas, ...
The objective of this study was to identify and characterize the reading and writing tasks that u... more The objective of this study was to identify and characterize the reading and writing tasks that university students perform to learn, taking into account the discipline (sciences vs humanities) and the support used (printed vs digital). Four hundred and four students completed an online questionnaire that included 13 tasks which involved reading-writing to learn the contents of the subject. The tasks varied according to their level of complexity, the number and type of sources needed, the level of composition required and the degree to which the information from the sources was processed. Students indicated performing, with higher frequency, tasks that promoted more superficial learning. Humanities students mentioned carrying out tasks that promoted deeper processing. Regarding the format of the materials used, science students reported using the digital format more frequently. However, printed support seemed to be more commonly used when students performed tasks to learn in a relat...
Introduction. The aim of this study was to analyse the role of epistemological beliefs and readin... more Introduction. The aim of this study was to analyse the role of epistemological beliefs and reading beliefs in the comprehension of multiple texts which presented conflicting positions about a controversial topic (nuclear energy). More specifically, we investigated the influence of the multidimensional configuration of epistemological and reading beliefs on multiple text comprehension. Method. The participants were 476 university students from two different Spanish universities, and diverse studies (Humanities, Health Sciences, Architecture and Engineering). In a whole-class session, the Epistemological Beliefs Questionnaire (EQEBI) and the Reader Belief Questionnaire were first administered. In the second part of the session participants completed the prior knowledge questionnaire and performed the multiple text comprehension task. Results. Using cluster analysis we identified two distinct beliefs profiles: sophisticated, in which the more sophisticated epistemological beliefs were associated to more transactional and less transmissive reading beliefs; and naïve, in which the more naïve epistemological beliefs were associated to less transactional and more transmissive reading beliefs. Relationships were found between profiles and gender and domain of knowledge. In addition, after controlling prior knowledge, students with a more sophisticated epistemological and reading beliefs' profile obtained a higher level of multiple text comprehension than those with a more naïve profile. Conclusion. Consistent with prior research, we may interpret that students who understand knowledge in a more sophisticated way tend to view reading less as a transmissive process and more transforming of knowledge; therefore, they get involved in a deeper comprehension of the different sources and this favours their ability to process information and make inferences-at an intra and inter textual level.
Electronic Journal of Research in Educational Psychology, 2016
Introduction. The aim of this study was to analyse the role of epistemological beliefs and readin... more Introduction. The aim of this study was to analyse the role of epistemological beliefs and reading beliefs in the comprehension of multiple texts which presented conflicting positions about a controversial topic (nuclear energy). More specifically, we investigated the influence of the multidimensional configuration of epistemological and reading beliefs on multiple text comprehension. Method. The participants were 476 university students from two different Spanish universities, and diverse studies (Humanities, Health Sciences, Architecture and Engineering). In a whole-class session, the Epistemological Beliefs Questionnaire (EQEBI) and the Reader Belief Questionnaire were first administered. In the second part of the session participants completed the prior knowledge questionnaire and performed the multiple text comprehension task. Results. Using cluster analysis we identified two distinct beliefs profiles: sophisticated, in which the more sophisticated epistemological beliefs were associated to more transactional and less transmissive reading beliefs; and naïve, in which the more naïve epistemological beliefs were associated to less transactional and more transmissive reading beliefs. Relationships were found between profiles and gender and domain of knowledge. In addition, after controlling prior knowledge, students with a more sophisticated epistemological and reading beliefs' profile obtained a higher level of multiple text comprehension than those with a more naïve profile. Conclusion. Consistent with prior research, we may interpret that students who understand knowledge in a more sophisticated way tend to view reading less as a transmissive process and more transforming of knowledge; therefore, they get involved in a deeper comprehension of the different sources and this favours their ability to process information and make inferences-at an intra and inter textual level.
A partir de sus conclusiones, se presenta un análisis crítico de la metodología y de los supuesto... more A partir de sus conclusiones, se presenta un análisis crítico de la metodología y de los supuestos básicos de cada uno de los acercamientos. Por último, se presenta un estudio empírico exploratorio que ilustra la aplicación de estos métodos al área de la Psicología clínica.
At European universities, writing is a traditional way of learning, assessment, and independent s... more At European universities, writing is a traditional way of learning, assessment, and independent study, but it is handled in an implicit, tradition-based way that has only recently been contrasted with and supported by a more explicit writing ped-agogy. Still, little systematic knowledge is available about the pedagogical ap-proaches to writing, writing practices, and genres across Europe and much of it is codified in the national languages without correlation to internationally accept-ed terminology and theories. This book explores the writing cultures of Europe, nation by nation, and reports the idiosyncrasies for each respective country. The reports are based on a 17-item topic list used by the authors to collect data be-fore synthesizing the results. Next to writing practices and genres, a high level of emphasis was placed on the structure of educational systems, the languages in use, and the kind of support provided for student writers.
L'estudi presentat es part d'una recerca sobre les tasques de lectura i escriptura que el... more L'estudi presentat es part d'una recerca sobre les tasques de lectura i escriptura que els estudiants duen a terme per aprendre continguts en l'ambit cientific i humanistic. Hi van participar 349 estudiants dels dos ambits de coneixement. Mitjancant un questionari on-line es van copsar les seves representacions sobre diverses tasques. Es va demanar si els professors les avaluaven, si informaven dels criteris concrets d'avaluacio i si oferien ajudes. Els resultats indiquen que, a banda d'existir diferencies entre el tipus de tasques que es realitzen en ambdos ambits de coneixement, tambe hi ha diferencies en la mesura en que s'informa sobre que s’avaluara i en les ajudes que es proporcionen.
La escritura de sintesis a partir de multiples fuentes es una tarea que requiere la integracion d... more La escritura de sintesis a partir de multiples fuentes es una tarea que requiere la integracion de ideas de diferentes posiciones y promueve la transformacion del conocimiento (Segev-Miller, 2007), especialmente cuando los estudiantes se enfrentan a posiciones contradictorias, pues la necesidad de contrastar e integrar diferentes perspectivas facilita el conflicto cognitivo y podria promover un aprendizaje mas constructivo (Mateos y cols., 2014). El uso de guias, disenadas para facilitar la puesta en marcha de los procesos cognitivos y metacognitivos que subyacen a la elaboracion de sintesis argumentativas, puede ser un recurso util para que el alumnado elabore sintesis de mejor calidad. Estudios previos han puesto de manifiesto una mejora en la estructura y calidad de las sintesis cuando los estudiantes recibian un programa de intervencion que incluia como componente una guia grafica, en comparacion con la instruccion tradicional (Kirkpatrick y Klein, 2009). A este respecto, este e...
Scientific literacy can be promoted through oral and written argumentative practice. Collaborativ... more Scientific literacy can be promoted through oral and written argumentative practice. Collaborative discourse has proven effective in fostering conceptual understanding, especially when discussions are developed under deliberative goals. Likewise, writing tasks as argumentative syntheses stand out for its epistemic value and its contribution to constructive learning processes. However, there are no known educational interventions that have combined these two didactic activities to teach science. The objective of this research was to compare the impact of four intervention programs, based on deliberative dialogues and argumentative synthesis writing activities, on the learning of socio-scientific content. The four programs resulted from the combination of two instructional components (Explicit Instruction; Guide), while deliberative dialogues and argumentative syntheses were constant elements. We conducted a pre-post quasi-experimental study in which participated 151 Spanish third gra...
In this study, university students are faced with the task of collaboratively writing an argument... more In this study, university students are faced with the task of collaboratively writing an argumentative synthesis from multiple sources. Specifically, in writing, they must integrate conflicting information on a particular issue obtained from reading two texts that present different perspectives. As research in this field has shown, university students' transactional beliefs about writing have a bearing on the quality of the texts that they write. In addition, studies on collaborative learning have demonstrated the role of constructive strategies in addressing controversy. Constructive strategies require an epistemic approach, which implies understanding and integrating opposing positions and rationales. Therefore, the specific aims of the study are to analyze the relationships between the following: (a) writing beliefs and the joint written synthesis, b) writing beliefs and the strategies used to address the controversies that emerge during collaborative writing, and (c) how students resolve controversies and the quality of their joint syntheses. The participants were 52 fourth-year psychology students at a state-run university in Madrid. The results show that transactional writing beliefs are associated with both the controversy strategies employed by members of student dyads and the quality of the joint syntheses. Furthermore, the strategies for addressing controversy are associated with the quality of the joint syntheses.
Educational Psychology: An International Journal of Experimental Educational Psychology, Sep 1, 2015
This study investigated the conceptions about writing and writing self-efficacy beliefs held by h... more This study investigated the conceptions about writing and writing self-efficacy beliefs held by high school students in relation to the students’ gender as well as their associations with writing achievement. The results show that female students have more sophisticated writing conceptions than their male counterparts but no gender differences were found in writing self-efficacy beliefs. In addition, results reveal that writing self-efficacy beliefs and gender play an important role in predicting writing performance and that writing performance is moderated by students’ writing conceptions. Educational implications and further research are discussed.
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Papers by Isabel Cuevas