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The study of employability aims to analyze the skills developed by students and their relevance for obtaining a job. It is about reducing imbalances between labor supply and demand. Carrying out internships in companies has proven to be an important factor in improving employability, because it improves the capabilities of university graduates. This paper has analyzed the role of internships in improving student skills and, consequently, their role in the employability of graduates. For doing the analysis, a questionnaire has been prepared, based on the four employability dimensions derived from the theoretical analysis, which includes ítems referring to: instrumental and interpersonal skills, as well as those related to motivation and the adequacy of the internships to the student’s university training. The questionnaire has been sent to 580 Business Administration and Management (ADE) students at the Faculty of Economics and Business (FEE) at the University of Barcelona (UB). A Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) was carried out with the results of the survey. The model obtained divided the employability into the four factors previously defined according to the theory: two kind of competences, instrumental competences and interpersonal competences, student’s motivation and the adequacy of the practices. Additionally, the model shows the existence of gender differences related to the motivation of students in carrying out the internships. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A new student generation, denominated generation Y emerged as a consequence of structural changes in a higher education globalization context as well as the social and technologic development. Some of the generation Y characteristics are: digital natives, the most diverse generation, at once more connected and more isolated, facing the worst economy in recent memory, more immature and dependent, with a pragmatic vision of studies and with useful searching information skills. This paper focused a comprehensive and structural vision of generation Y college students. This vision, multidimensional and multilevel, has been constructed with two types of evidence: the first one it's about some secondary evidence sources (research studies, institutional reports), with special focus on strong methodological issues; the second one is founded on primary evidence from a group of junior faculty of University of Barcelona. The multidimensional vision included such aspects as: social and academic background, transition to higher education, modes and types of studies, and learning styles. The multilevel analysis focuses on students of several countries (especial attention on European students), national Spanish students, and student from some specifics universities. A singular objective of this paper is to have the possibility of contrasting the similitude of the double vision generated from the two typologies of examined evidence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Could be easy to find interesting studies about the influence of some factors (personal, social, institutional, etc.) as facilitators or inhibitors of adequate academic transition from student's perspective. This paper describes the process of academic adjustment to high education college from the perspective of first-year teachers. Underlies also the relationship between faculty motivation and satisfaction and students retention. Collect opinions of first-year teachers could result of particular interest. They can have an important influence on students, being a reference for them. Could be possible to identify some profile of first year teachers, not only in terms of the characteristics of the discipline to be taught, but also the student's profile and the characteristics of the class groups. A statistical survey has been done to all first-year teachers at grades of Administration and Management (ADE) and Education studies, at the University of Barcelona. This survey was done at the end of the 2010-11 academic year, obtaining a rate 45% response. Sample includes "online comments" from faculty members. Statistical techniques as descriptive analysis and regression analysis, based on a principal components analysis, let identify relationships between variables. The study also collected qualitative results of the opinions of higher education teachers to incorporate personal aspects. Factors relating to teaching context are those that have a higher influence in faculty satisfaction. On the other hand, student previous academic preparation has a negative effect on it. Four factors were identified through a dimensional reduction of variables: teaching coordination and operation, teaching conditions, teaching experience and teacher gender. This paper would remark this point and suggest some improving needs for a first year teachers and those who have responsibilities on it. Results show how teachers' motivation and involvement decline slightly throughout the academic year. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes the extent to which students are able to assess their own learning and that of their peers (peer assessment and self-evaluation) through erubrica, standards and evaluation criteria proposed by the faculty in the configuration, design and development of project evaluation. This type of evaluation and self-assessment presumes in the New European space of Higher Education that students take a more active role in the learning process and the evaluation itself will serve in helping to achieve the knowledge of professional skills. Thus the use of new technologies in self-regulatory assessment processes allows the student to achieve an optimal, effective and quality performance in the proposed content, as much as in the development of them before the group, considering the act of evaluation as a process of improvement and learning through tools such as the erubrica that favor the "overall assessment"; that is, the assumption of all core competencies. This study has been carried out in the academic year 2011-2012, for two semesters with different core subjects (theory and child education policy and towards an inclusive school: patterns and practices) and with identical groups (Group 1, 1st degree of infant A as the experimental group; and Group 2, 1st degree of infant B, as the control group). This paper exposes the results of peer evaluation and self-evaluation through the implementation of projects, where students evaluate their peers and evaluate themselves by comparing the results with the assessment made by the teacher with their groups and each student individually. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A method used to allow the joint acquisition of generic skills such as teamwork, design creative proposals, select information, oral and written communication to University students from different study programs is presented in this paper. To achieve this goal, first, a project using the methodology of Project Based Learning (PBL) was designed and, second, it was tested carrying out two pilot plans which involved different numbers of students and courses. The students had the challenge of converting an episode of the television show of a famous Spanish cook (Karlos Arguiñano) into a scientific radio program. For this reason, the project was called Arguiñano Project. The radio show had to be filled with a testable scientific content and to do so students had to work collaboratively and share their own knowledge background. The project was reorganized after the evaluation of the first pilot plan and it was developed again in a second pilot project, which involved more students and allowed to compare scores between students that work under PBL and others of the same course and study program that performed a similar task but without following the PBL method. The results show that PBL-based activities have a great potential for the acquisition of generic skills and also improve the achievement of specific skills and a higher degree of satisfaction when compared to a more traditional learning method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper the results on the perception of the students on formative assessment processes carried out in the university are presented, focusing on understanding the system and monitoring conducted throughout the course in relation to this work students enrolled subjects, first, 1st and 2nd year and, second, 3rd and 4th. The sample used is 3460 students, corresponding to 51 subjects of 17 Spanish universities; in all were conducted formative evaluation processes. The students were divided in 2 groups, one called "initial training" (1764 students) and one called "final course" (1696 students). We used a validated questionnaire on evaluation methodology and initial training, in which different items related to formative assessment specified. It has employed a quantitative analysis, divided into descriptive: frequencies and percentages and inferential: contingency tables and χ2 and ANOVA, using this latter technique based on the positive perception of the assessment based on learning processes items and the number of times the student is enrolled in courses. The findings of this research show: a) formative assessment systems are perceived positively by students; b) the quality of the tasks required increases, recognizing that greater involvement is needed for work and an understanding of the system from the beginning does not build; c) the number of times the student is enrolled in the course not directly affects their perception of this type of process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the students' point of view about the competencies of a good university teacher, obtained from a questionnaire based on the teaching competencies stated and validated according to the REDU2012 Project. 10302 undergraduate students and 1700 master students from 15 universities answered through an online formulary suitable also for mobile devices. The importance that has been given to the 16 characteristics defined in the questionnaire is remarkably high: all of them are qualified either as good or as excellent. That the teacher explains clearly the subject's content is the best-scored characteristic, followed by the motivation encouragement. Both characteristics are highly rated by students, with no regard of their original areas of knowledge, their year or their sex. The lowest rated skills in order to be a good teacher are the encouragement of participation and of collaborative work and the coordination with teachers of other subjects, although their scores exceed also 7.5 (in a scale from 0 to 10). When relating the research results with the teaching competencies we observe that the highest assessment goes to communicative competencies, interpersonal relationship competencies and methodological competencies. Instead, competencies of planning and management of the teaching and teamwork competencies are less rated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is focused on the selfassessment trough e-rubrics. Rubrics as an instrument of self-assessment involve a process of reflection that can contribute to increase the involvement and awareness of their own achievements. Here we wanted to engage students from the design and creation of rubric through a collaborative process of building an e-rubric by the students and the teacher. In this study, undergraduate students of Pedagogy participated in an elective subject in their third year. It was developed in several stages in a semester: training for using e-rubrics, designing and construction of e-rubrics, using the e-rubric as a tool for self-assessment and filling a final questionnaire to collect their views. It's important to consider that when we work with innovative strategies of assessment, students have to know not only the features of the instrument but also they have to know the influence to improve their learning processes and they have to achieve the ability to incorporate it to their own skills as education professionals. As main result, students highlighted the importance of rubrics to guide their learning processes and to reflect about it and the capacity of rubric to predict their performance in the subject. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses the effect of massive access to higher education on teaching at a public Argentine Law School. It describes the general background of the phenomenon and outlines the main consequences of teaching Law in overcrowded classrooms. Then, it defines the underlying epistemology, the theories of learning and the predominant educational approach applied by law school professors. Next, it observes how expanded access to Law School defies the educational goals of the institution. It concludes by offering an alternative educational proposal to still achieve the objectives in overcrowded classrooms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Systematic training for in-service teachers whose main occupation is not teaching presents challenges. This paper describes a teaching training program at a university of health sciences that deals with them. Around 40 professionals who teach in undergraduate and graduate courses of the Instituto Universitario del Hospital Italiano de Buenos Aires take part annually in this program. In order to explain how this program faces those challenges, we perform a pedagogicaldidactic characterization of some of its "training devices". This analysis is part of didactical design research undertaken by the authors and teachers responsible for this proposal and includes both systematic record of experience in the classroom, participants written work and their personal reflections. As a result we find that these devices can be grouped into three types: to mobilize the reflection on their own conceptions, to produce alternative courses of actions and to play the whole game of teaching. From the voice of the participants, these devices, complementary and throughout the two years of the program, problematize practices uncritically reproduce, modify conceptions and improve the practice of teaching. Thus, this analysis provides conceptualizations and training proposals that could support not only the activity of those who are responsible for designing and conducting such projects, but also to the production of knowledge in the field of teacher training in university teaching. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Analyzing how university teachers' academic calling is changing entails understanding the changing motivational pressures they are subject to. Over the course of the last ten years, the use of federal Economic Stimulus Programs (PEEs) in Mexican public universities has been a factor that needs to be analyzed both for its successes and also in terms of some undesirable effects it has had. Many have suggested that the change in the objective well-being of academics that is caused by these PEEs does not necessarily result in an improvement in their performance as researchers or teachers. The purpose of this paper is, therefore, to provide information on the actual situation, which is more tenuous when making a distinction among: the gap between what academics believe regarding the notion of quality, the value provided by the PEEs to their teaching duties, professors' multifunctional profile, or other academic functions such as research. Based on an abbreviated method designed to observe the viewpoint imposed on the faculty, which consists of the design of a questionnaire and an initial interpretation of its results, we will show how the statistical data were obtained. These data will be also useful for a subsequent qualitative interpretation. The idea is to encourage the confluence of ideas that derive from this method and that different researchers would want to delve into. In this case the data are combined with information that explains some of the effects inferred from them that are related to teaching. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]