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The present context of COVID19 pandemics has highlighted the vulnerability of tourism. Sustainable tourism needs to be thoroughly implemented to confront this and other crises; and sustainable tourism pedagogies must accompany the process, especially in terms of students' professional skills essential for overcoming crisis situations. This paper seeks to evaluate the Degrees of Tourism in Spain from the perspective of both students and teachers in order to show to what extent they consider students to be sufficiently qualified so as to address the challenges required in the tourism sector to deal with this and other crises. To answer this question, we have turned to Sustainable Tourism Pedagogy (STP), a framework for the critical analysis of tourism studies based on six areas of literacy that this article will use for empirical analysis. The STP core literacies have been evaluated in a statistically validated questionnaire addressed to 393 respondents and data analysis has been performed with analytical descriptive techniques. The results show: i) that Tourism Degrees do not meet the needs of today's students, especially because of a major lack of sustainability issues, ii) significant gaps between the perception of teachers and students, iii) that there are calls for a more sustainable tourism pedagogy in Higher Education. This paper concludes by highlighting the urgent need to revise official national programmes. [Display omitted] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Software testing is the most used technique for quality assurance in industry. However, in computer science education software testing is still treated as a second-class citizen and students are unable to test their software well enough. One reason for this is that teaching the subject of software testing is difficult as it is a complex intellectual activity for which students need to allocate multiple cognitive resources at the same time. A myriad of primary and secondary studies have tried to solve this problem in education, however still with very limited results. Before we can design interventions to improve our pedagogical approaches, we need to gain more in-depth understanding and recognition of sensemaking as it is happening when students design test cases. An initial exploratory study identified four different sensemaking approaches used by students while creating test models. In this paper we present a follow-up study with 50 students from a large university in Spain. The used methodology was based on the previous study with the improvements that originated from its evaluation. We asked the participants to create a test model based on a description of a test problem using a specialized web-based tool for modeling test cases. We measured how well these models fit the test problem, the sensemaking process that students went through when creating the models, and the students' perception of the modeling task. The participants received no compensation for their efforts, and we scheduled the experiment during a regular class. Apart from the created models and their metadata, we also collected recordings of the students' computer screens made during the experiment and used a questionnaire to study their perspectives on the assignment. All the collected textual, graphical, and video data was analyzed using an iterative inductive analysis process to allow new information about the different sensemaking approaches to emerge. We gained better insights into the sensemaking processes of students while modeling test cases for a problem. The results enabled us to refine our previous findings, and we identified new sensemaking approaches. Based on these results, we can further investigate ways to influence the sensemaking process in education, the possible misconceptions that have a negative influence on it, and the desired mental model we want our students to have to design test cases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the relation between department affiliation and interdisciplinarity in terms of knowledge creation. While the claims made for the benefits or limitations of interdisciplinarity are diverse, they have been largely related to modes of academic governance or to the bare nature of disciplines. Less is known on the precise role of social networks in fostering or hindering interdisciplinarity within intraorganizational contexts. Thus, to explore the influence of network structure, tie strength and nodal properties in interdisciplinarity within higher education institutions, we study the structure and dynamics of academic's personal knowledge networks. It is used a mixed methods approach combining the delineation of personal networks with the ties' content analysis regarding a conceptual model specifically developed for this study. Personal network data were collected and semi-structured interviews were held with 32 academic staff members of the academic and research system in Catalonia, Spain. Findings suggest that belonging to a department decreases interdisciplinarity and that institutional constraints are more significant than the strength of the ties. Researcher's network centrality and strength of ties are positively related to interdisciplinarity. Structural holes control for certain organizational rewards and individual attributes but are not directly linked to interdisciplinarity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The paper includes an extensive literature review on methodologies for teaching critical thinking in higher education. • The paper analyses the most effective methodologies to teach critical thinking that university teachers use in their teaching. • The paper analyses the relationship between the concept teachers have of critical thinking and the methodologies they use for its development. Critical thinking is a competency which is being required from students in their personal and professional life. For this reason, universities must do their most to include it in their syllabus, programs, and classes. However, there is still much work to be done since there is not a clear definition of this competency, and also new active methodologies need to be enhanced for its development. This article starts with a literature review of the main methodologies to teach this competency, and moreover, analyzes the main methodologies that 230 university teachers from Spain and Latin America use in the classroom as well as the ones they consider as more effective for the development of critical thinking. This information is contrasted with the concept these teachers have of critical thinking, based on previous research in which six different categories of concept were found. The data is analyzed using the test of Chi-square and Cohen's Kappa. The results seem to indicate that teachers use and consider as most effective mainly three different methodologies: oral and written reflection and argumentation; reading, analysis and synthesis of resources; and case studies, regardless the concept they have of critical thinking, although some other tendencies between methodologies and concept of critical thinking are observed. In addition, there is a significant relationship between methodologies teachers use and those they consider most effective. Finally, some implications for curriculum design and implementation in relation to critical thinking are presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sustainability issues in higher educational institutions have attracted increasing levels of attention from both the public and policy makers in recent decades. A number of previous studies have called for a more comprehensive integration of sustainable development into mainstream university operations and curricula. However, there is a lack of sufficient studies that investigate sustainable development in higher education in Spain. Therefore, the present paper has two goals: First, the study analyses the extent to which Spanish universities have implemented sustainability practices in their institutions. To accomplish this task, data were collected using a survey distributed to rectors and senior management at Spanish higher education institutions. The second goal is to examine the main factors that might explain the implementation of sustainability practices in Spanish universities. For this purpose, Pearson chi-square tests were used to analyse the data collected in the survey. Key findings show the slow rate of progress of many Spanish universities with regard to implementing sustainability practices, a fact which could indicate that there are clearly a number of obstacles to overcome. Additionally, there were no factors influencing the implementation of sustainability practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study evaluates how features related to the regional configuration of universities—i.e., the number of universities in a region and the proportion of public universities—influence the regional formation rate of knowledge-intensive business service (KIBS) firms. Using a sample of 47 Spanish regions (provinces) during 2009–2013, the results of the spatial econometric panel analysis give support to the argument that regions with a greater concentration of universities and with higher proportion of public universities attract more new KIBS firms. However, the findings also indicate a substitution effect between these university-based variables and the region's industry specialization. Thus, new KIBS businesses tend to locate in regions where they expect either stronger knowledge inputs from universities or higher demand from potential industrial customers. We also reveal the presence of interregional spillover effects. The paper offers insights on how territories may attract more knowledge-based businesses by encouraging the development of the local higher education system. • Increased university presence can lead to superior KIBS formation in the region. • A greater weight of public universities can facilitate regional KIBS formation. • A substitution effect exists between universities and industry specialization. • In regions with lower industry share, universities drive KIBS business creation. • In industrialized regions, industry businesses foster KIBS formation processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The role of the 21st century student needs to be that of a critical visual reader. • This study aims to explore and identify our 21st century EFL/ESL university learners' viewing and thinking needs. • The results point to the need for an emphasis on critical thinking and visual literacy skills in the EFL/ESL university classroom. • Visual communication gains prominence in a competitive world while students remain to lack preparation in this area. This paper draws from the need to approach 21st century university students as reflective viewers and thinkers able to read digital texts, thereby properly acquiring language, culture and literature as a continuum. We aim to explore and identify our 21st century EFL/ESL university learners' viewing and thinking needs through the use of memes in the EFL/ESL classroom. Accordingly, we conducted a classroom-based study with 52 final year students on the Degree in English Studies at the Complutense University of Madrid in Spain. We developed and implemented a meme-based activity and a rubric for measuring the capacities of our students as effective critical and visual readers. Results point to the need for an emphasis on critical thinking and visual literacy skills in the EFL/ESL university classroom, as visual communication gains prominence in a competitive world while students remain to lack preparation in this area. The processing of multimodal texts remains on a superficial level. Essential needs were detected concerning the interpretation of the cultural meanings of the texts, and the identification of their supposed intentions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The use of mobile devices in education is becoming standardized at the higher education stage. However, it is necessary to evaluate good teaching practices of mobile learning (m-learning) in order to set proper application of mobile devices and favourable learning outcomes for students. The purposes of this paper were, on the one hand, to determine the degree of implementation of m-learning and good teaching practices in Spanish universities; on the other hand, to know the causes that lead university professors not to integrate mobile devices and to determine the socio-demographic factors that influence the development of good teaching practices of m-learning. In relation to the researching method, it was used a quantitative approach focused on the implementation of an online survey. A total of 1544 university professors attached to the Faculties of Education throughout Spain, aged between 20 and 77, participated in the study (M = 45.29; SD = 10.45). The results obtained revealed that: 1) More than 70% of Spanish university professors use mobile devices in the classroom; 2) The main reasons whereby mobile devices are not used in the classroom are ignored, belief that they are a distraction, resistance to change and perceived uselessness; 3) Only 39.56% carried out good teaching practices; 4) The main and possible influential factors good teaching practices of m-learning were professional category, line of research in educational technology, other teaching innovations, believes in the adequacy of mobile devices and the expansion of m-learning in the coming years. Finally, the practical implications of this study are discussed, highlighting the wealth of collected data from this pioneering research on the evaluation of good teaching practices of m-learning. • More than 70% of Spanish university teachers use mobile devices in the classroom. • The main reasons for non-use of mobile devices are ignorance, distraction, resistance to change and perceived uselessness. • Of the sample that applies mLearning as a teaching methodology, only 39.56% carried out good teaching practice. • Significant differences were knowledge field, educational technology research, innovations, belief in mLearning expansion. • Category, educational technology research, innovations, belief and adequacy of mLearning influenced good teaching practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]