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Parental monitoring (PM) is a key construct in research on children's well-being and healthy development referring to the attention parents pay to their children's activities and whereabouts. However, existing literature suggests that the psychometric properties of its measurement tools are still perfect. For this study, a revised Italian parental monitoring scale (I-PM-R) was developed and validated with data from 835 participants (63% females), aged between 10 and 20 years old. The sample was divided into two sub-samples. One was used for parallel and exploratory factor analyses, and the other was used for confirmatory factor analysis. A total of eight factors were thus identified. The scale exhibited invariance in relation to children's gender and school success, and associations with demographic variables and school performance. The I-PM-R contributes to the need to move toward psychometric quality advances in the measurement of PM.

The present study aims to understand the relationship between the big five factors of personality and academic motivation. In addition, the following variables are taken into consideration; sex, age and type of educational studies. A quantitative methodology is used, in base to a not experimental, correlational study. The sample is composed of 514 students of the Faculty of Education of Leon's University, between the three education degrees. To gather the information, participants were asked to complete the Learning and Motivation Strategies Questionnaire (CEAM) and the Personality Questionnaire Five Factor Inventory (NEO-FFI). The results show the significant relationship between personality facets and motivation variables. It should be noted that female results were higher in the values of intrinsic motivation, motivation towards teamwork, neuroticism, and kindness, and the male results were higher in self-efficacy. Additionally, it was observed that intrinsic motivation decreases progressively from the first to the fourth year of the degree, the need for recognition decreases in the two last study years, and the openness to experiences is higher in the last year of the degree. Finally, Social Education students are those that show a higher intrinsic motivation, self-efficacy, total motivation, openness to experiences, and neuroticism, while Primary Education students' results were higher in the need for recognition.

This study aimed to examine the institutional and organizational characteristics of Mexican state public universities' outreach with the surrounding area, by identifying and comparing best practices to design a new model for collaboration with the environment. The central question was: "What are the regulatory foundations for the planning and educational philosophies that underpin the outreach approaches of public universities in Mexico?" In methodological terms, this research was of a qualitative nature, and used institutional documents as its main data. It was a documentary review of regulations, planning documents, educational models, and organizational structure of the nine universities considered. Qualitative evidence was collected through deductive content analysis, on the basis of preconceived theoretical and conceptual precepts that guide the search for and analysis of documentary information. One key finding was that the regulations of the institutions examined did acknowledge the importance of strengthening ties between the university and the regional surroundings but were ambiguous in their definition of collaborative activities. In most universities, outreach was seen as a support for teaching and research, and its importance was not acknowledged. This is why it is necessary for universities to make promoting economic and social development a substantive function, to be reflected in specific regulations for outreach. Similarly, greater visibility is needed in organizational structures to position outreach within universities' roles and activities.

The aim of the study was to describe student profiles associated with educational achievement from four sets of personal variables: psychological, academic, health, and technology use. A representative sample of middle school students from Baja California, Mexico, was given an ad hoc questionnaire and academic results were obtained from a standardized academic achievement test. Cluster analysis k-means allowed us to define two student profiles. Equal numbers of students were found in both groups, with Cluster 1 grouping high-achieving students and Cluster 2 those with a lower level of educational achievement. All of the personal variables help to describe and differentiate between the two groups, except for the number of times they have changed schools.

In a complex and systemic view of human development, the educational relationship is conceived as the keystone of development (Pianta, 1999; Pianta, 2001). However, harsh discipline practices may still be culturally rooted, thus affecting children's well-being. Two constructs that may provide useful insights on this topic are Adultcentrism (AD) and Black Pedagogy (BP). AD is conceived as a paradigm of thought entailing a bias in the interpretation of children's needs, hindering adults' capability to truly understand children's culture, and promoting a binary thinking based on the adult-child opposition. BP represents a label for those "old-fashioned" disciplinary methods (punishments or physical/mental violence) based on adults' power and control over children, that may be still deemed as acceptable to a certain degree in a specific cultural and social context. Adultcentrism and Black Pedagogy Scales were administered to a sample of 294 Italian primary school teachers (age M = 47 years, SD = 8.96). Measures of authoritarian educational styles and of the ability to recognize subtle maltreating situations were also included. Results indicated that the higher the agreement with AD and BP, the lower the capacity to correctly recognize subtle maltreating situations in classroom. Adultcentrism proved to be a significant predictor of Black Pedagogy: F(1, 231) = 71.06, p = 0.000, with R[superscript 2] = 0.24. Results support the idea that it is worth reflecting on the risk that Adultcentrism brings about detrimental Black Pedagogy educational practices, in order to provide suggestions about possible application models for family and professional caregivers to use to foster children's well-being.

The name Lamarck is very well known in the teaching of biology, being associated with an early effort to explain evolution. Nevertheless, when evolution is taught in the classroom, the only Lamarckian ideas that stand out are related to the 'inheritance of acquired characters', invariably illustrated by the example of the lengthening of giraffes' necks, as a way of contrasting Lamarckian ideas with Darwinian natural selection. Our aim here is to argue that there are other important ideas in Lamarck's work that are directly related to the origin and transformation of species. These concepts, causal explanations of organic nature, can be taught to students who are learning about the sources and development of evolutionary thought and will moreover provide the student with properly justified reasons as to why Lamarck's explanation is considered to be the first wide-ranging and well-argued explanation of biological evolution. The Lamarckian concepts that we consider important for teaching evolutionary thought are the following: (1) the species as an arbitrary concept, directly related to the Lamarckian concept of the continuous transformation of species, (2) the ancestor--descendant relationship, and organic diversification from a common plan of organisation to a branching series, (3) gradual change, related to changes in environmental conditions, and (4) the controversy concerning the origin of life (that is, having either a natural cause or a divine origin), life's transformation, and the natural origin of human beings, including our moral capacity, subjects which were related to Lamarck's other political and philosophical interests.

The purpose of this study was to empirically test two major theoretical models: a modified version of the social capital model (Pattie, Seyd and Whiteley, 2003), and the Informed Social Engagement Model (Barr and Selman, 2014; Selman and Kwok, 2010), to explain civic participation and civic knowledge of adolescents from Chile, Colombia and Mexico, using data from the International Civic and Citizenship Education Study 2009 (Schulz, et al., 2010). The models were used to identify factors associated with different levels of knowledge and civic participation: expected participation in legal and illegal protests, and electoral participation. Data were analyzed using regression analysis. Results show that the Informed Social Engagement approach (ISEM), explains better the observed differences in civic knowledge and civic participation, than the Social Capital Model (SCM). That is, the expected values associated with the variables included in the ISEM are closer to the observed values, than those predicted by the SCM. This is true for the three outcomes (expected participation in legal protests, illegal protests, and electoral participation) and in the three countries analyzed (Chile, Colombia and Mexico).

We examined the effects of cognitive load on the strategy selection in the forced choice test (FCT) when used to detect hidden crime knowledge. Examinees (N = 120) with and without concealed knowledge from a mock crime were subjected to an FCT either under standard circumstances or cognitive load. Cognitive load was implemented through time pressure. The FCT distinguished examinees with concealed knowledge from those without better than chance in both conditions, but the counterstrategies did not differ between conditions. Further investigation revealed that time pressure did affect examinees' ability to follow their intended counterstrategy to produce randomized test patterns, which constitutes an effective counterstrategy in the FCT. Hence, time pressure lowered the success rate of effective counterstrategies, but not their incident rates. Further disambiguation of various cognitive load manipulations and their effects on strategy selection and execution is needed.

This study aimed at verifying whether a specific program on writing self-efficacy, designed to train the four sources of self-efficacy suggested by Bandura (1997), could improve not only productivity and quality of writing composition in students with LD and their processes of writing, but also their writing self-efficacy beliefs and other motivational constructs. Sixty fifth- and sixth-grade students with LD were assessed on a series of measures prior to and following the specific training on writing self-efficacy, which was applied to 40 of the students with the remaining 20 making up a control group. Results showed that self-efficacy-trained students got better scores on most of the variables than their peers in the standard curriculum group after the instruction. This emphasizes the importance of modifying the writing self-efficacy of students with LD and shows how it can improve their written texts, not only in terms of quality and productivity but also in terms of the time they spend thinking, writing, and checking as processes of writing. (Contains 8 tables and 4 figures.)

Given that affective and cognitive processes interact in writing, it is important that interventions for developing writing ability focus both on strategies for developing motivation and cognitive processes. This article provides evidence for the efficacy of an instructional program that combines training in composition processes with strategies for developing motivation to achieve. Motivational training focused on multiple attributes: value and functional character, standards of performance, expectations, beliefs, self-efficacy, self-esteem and writing-related factors. Sixty-six fifth- and six-grade students with learning disabilities were assessed on a series of measures prior to and following the motivational intervention. Compared with a control group (n=61), trained students showed significant improvements in the quality of their writing (measured in terms of text structure and coherence) and in their attitudes towards writing. They did not, however, show significant changes in productivity (quantity of text produced), self-esteem, beliefs and expectations, or in writing-related attributions.

In light of the emergence of statistical analysis techniques based on data mining in education sciences, and the potential they offer to detect non-trivial information in large databases, this paper presents a procedure used to detect factors linked to academic achievement in large-scale assessments. The study is based on a non-experimental, cross-sectional design and a sample of 18,935 high school students from 99 educational institutions in Baja California state (Mexico). The information was collected from ENLACE tests and context surveys given to students in Baja California. Decision trees were used to apply classification techniques, and the results indicate that personal factors are most indicative of academic performance, followed by school-related and social factors. In conclusion, the paper discusses the similarities between the results obtained and those shown in literature, highlighting how simple decision trees allow a greater explanation and interpretation than other models and techniques.

Introduction: The use of self efficacy has been suggested as an effective classroom intervention procedure. The present research examined the use of self-efficacy training on the writing of Spanish elementary student with learning disabilities. Objectives: We present a research study focused on the improvement of the writing product and the writing processes fostering self-efficacy in writing. We assessed pre and post results, comparing an experimental and a control group of students with LD. The question is whether we can improve, through a writing self-efficacy intervention, not only the writing product but the processes involved, and their relationship. Method: In total 60 students participated. These students were placed in either the experimental or control group. Two writing samples were evaluated. The four major components of self-efficacy were taught to the experimental group. Results: The results show improvement, not only in the process, but in the product of writing (productivity, coherence, structure and quality) in the experimental group, and in the relationship of process and product in the experimental group but not in the control one. Discussion: More instructional and experimental studies are required to confirm the nature of the process-product relationship in writing. The benefits of employing process product model of writing appears warranted. (Contains 2 tables.)

This study aimed to investigate the importance of self-efficacy and attitudes to wards writing in writing training. It was also necessary to establish whether these constructs could be more enhanced through a specific intervention as part of the motivational factors, than through training which coaches other writing components such as cognitive processes or cognitive style. To achieve this, the first training program, focusing on the strategies for planning writing, was applied to 28 5th and 6th graders with learning disabilities (LD); a second program, focusing on writing strategies plus reflexive processes, was applied to 49 learning disabled students studying the same grades as in the first group. Finally, the third intervention tried to enhance writing skills using motivational strategies, and it was applied to 66 students in the same conditions as the other samples. All the training programs were compared to a control group, who received only the ordinary curriculum. Results show that there are difficulties in training self-efficacy and attitudes towards writing, but also that different training programs provide different results in these aspects.

Many instructors have expressed a recent interest in incorporating service-learning activities into their courses. Several authors have maintained that service-learning opportunities help students to better understand class concepts and also lead to desirable outcomes in students, such as enhanced self esteem and an increased interest in social causes. In this article, we discuss the value of teaching and learning operant principles in animal shelters from the perspectives of a faculty member, a student, and a shelter staff member. We maintain that using psychology of learning students as dog trainers in animal shelters results in benefits for instructors, students, and shelter staff, as well as for the dogs in shelters and the people who adopt them.

Metabolic control analysis has contributed to the rapid advance in our understanding of metabolic regulation. However, up to now this topic has not been covered properly in biochemistry courses. This work reports the development and implementation of a practical lesson on metabolic control analysis (MCA) using modeling and simulation. The objectives are to: (1) promote an easy connection between enzymology and metabolism; (2) build a model of a metabolic pathway from the kinetic parameters of the enzymes involved and some data on the concentrations of substrates and modulators; (3) show clearly that there is a close relationship between the local behavior of any enzyme and the systemic responses of the metabolic pathways; (4) get, by simulation, an easy, fast, and inexpensive method to obtain the required data to apply MCA theory; (5) use concepts that are not always clearly assimilated by students; and (6) facilitate the learning of the different coefficients and theorems of MCA. This kind of approach helps students study and properly assimilate MCA, a systemic theory of control that the authors hope will be introduced in biochemistry teaching in a degree similar to the extension reached by metabolic regulation at research level. (Contains 2 tables and 2 schemes.) [This work was supported by funds from the Andalusian Government and from the Spanish Ministry for Science and Technology.]

The use of theatrical techniques combined with factual information creates dynamic, memorable programming on sensitive subjects while enhancing audience awareness and providing information. Psychoeducational Drama (PED) is an effective and powerful approach to educational programming. A model for PED, techniques, and uses of the approach in colleges are described. (Author/EMK)