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The English Diagnostic Test aims to assess reading comprehension skills for first-year students at the University of Costa Rica. In 2022, this test consisted of four instruments with 55 items. Instruments were based on an academic reading, following the criteria B2+ or C1 level according to Common European Framework of Reference for languages. This paper explores the evidence of validity and reliability from 1732 first-year students virtually assessed in March of 2022, using the platform of the Programa de Evaluacion en Lenguas Extranjeras (PELEx). Results from this study demonstrated the unidimensionality of the four instruments. Cronbach's alphas for the four instruments ranged from 0.79 to 0.84. Evidence collected in this study supports the work done by the School on Modern Languages in the development of valid and reliable instruments for the English Diagnostic Test, as part of the current needs of new students for undergraduate programs at the University of Costa Rica.

It is widely accepted that concept maps are a meaningful learning tool. Even so, the use of concept mapping as a meaningful learning tool is probably less common than the use of concept mapping as an assessment tool. In first place, the easiest thing to with a student's concept map is to apply a rubric and give it a grade. And second, teachers often believe that by using a meaningful learning tool, their students are learning meaningfully while constructing their concept maps. We are then missing on the greatest power of the concept map, its use as a tool to learn meaningfully. In this paper we examine the difference between using concept maps for learning and for assessment, and propose steps on how to move towards the use of the tool to improve students' learning and understanding.

Purpose: This study aims to identify the strategic leadership and change management used to obtain the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) accreditations as well as the research development on AACSB in the past decade. Design/methodology/approach: This study used a systematic literature review following Petticrew and Roberts' study. The articles were limited to empirical studies published from 2013 to 2022, taken from the Dimensions AI database. Findings: The findings suggested that two leadership styles were used to obtain AACSB accreditation: dominance-oriented transformational and financial leadership, alongside three traits of academic leaders: commitment, engagement and encouragement. Additionally, three change management models/processes were found in the articles: teaching evaluation framework, temporary isomorphism and authenticity. Finally, they discovered that the object of the studies on AACSB accreditation had been narrowed down from the organizational level to smaller objects consisting of schools' identity, teaching, learning and business schools' key players. Research limitations/implications: As this study only used Dimensions AI, potential articles related to the topic outside the database could not be obtained. Thus, it limits the scope of the findings of this paper. Practical implications: This study informs academic leaders in business schools about the role of strategic leadership and change management in obtaining AACSB accreditation. Originality/value: Through a systematic scoping review, this study presented a decade of research development on AACSB in addition to the strategic leadership and change management needed to obtain it.

Achieving the competence to reflect on the degree of suitability of textbooks is not easy, so it is necessary to train prospective professionals in the knowledge and use of analytical tools to guide them in critically analyzing these curricular materials. In response to this research problem, this paper describes and analyses the implementation of a training intervention that aims to promote reflective competence in prospective Costa Rican teachers through the analysis of textbook lessons. The content of proportionality is chosen because of its central in the curriculum. The training activity was motivating for the participants and helped them to progress in the competence of lesson analysis. However, it is noted that the design needs to be improved in terms of time dedication, as well as attention to the necessary didactical-mathematical background knowledge on proportionality to achieve better results.

Higher education requires a different approach to teaching and learning since modern-day students no longer have the same learning needs as they had in the past. Project-based learning (PBL) is an active and dynamic approach to language teaching that makes it possible for the language students to gain transferable and applicable knowledge, skills, and insights, and it also contributes to support and enhance virtual exchanges(VE), especially when it comes to developing intercultural communicative competence and using digital technologies. This paper is aimed at showing the results of using PBL in VE contexts to develop intercultural communicative competence of Costa Rican and Japanese EFL students by implementing some ideas from the Council of Europe's Reference Framework of Competences for Democratic Culture (FRCDC). The results suggest that implementing PBL in VE contexts to develop intercultural communicative competence of Costa Rican and Japanese EFL students had an impact on the participants' skills, values, attitudes, and knowledge and critical understanding.

Maderas Rainforest Conservancy (MRC) is a conservation‐focused non‐profit organization that is devoted to protecting the tropical forests they manage in Costa Rica and Nicaragua and to providing conservation education for international university students through biological field schools. The MRC Primate Behavior and Ecology course is their most frequent course offering and is aimed at developing students to be independent field researchers. This course involves classroom lectures, training in primate identification and field methods, and the execution of independent research projects that students design, collect data for, and write up as scientific papers. Student development as conservationists is facilitated through the research experience provided by this field course as well as through co‐ and extracurricular research opportunities available to students at the sites that MRC manages: La Suerte Biological Research Station in Costa Rica, and Ometepe Biological Research Station in Nicaragua. In tandem with their participation in the MRC primate field course, we (Laura M. Bolt and Amy L. Schreier) consistently offer students research opportunities in our ongoing project examining the impact of forest fragmentation on primate behavioral ecology. MRC student course evaluations indicate that this co‐ and extracurricular research participation substantially contributes to student academic development and conservation awareness. Student research collaboration, therefore, greatly benefits students as well as furthers MRC's conservation goals as a non‐profit organization. In future MRC primate field school sessions, we will continue to offer research collaboration opportunities to students and will also endeavor to improve conservation education at MRC by involving more local community members in MRC's academic programs. Highlights: Maderas Research Conservancy (MRC) hosts a primate field school for international university students.MRC faculty engage in research collaboration with students to promote conservation education.MRC course evaluations show that student conservation education and academic training are enhanced through research collaboration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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This article analyses the professional identities of nine women academics from different universities and Latin American countries in their relationship with open education (OE) and the production of open educational resources (OERs) for teaching, as a significant key to understand the meaning of being an academic today in a social and economic context such as the Latin American one, and the perspectives this contributes to educational innovation. It arises from the need to deepen research on systemic structures of empowerment for open-access creation and publication, where gender is critical, considering the imbalances that are evident in other fields of educational technology, and specifically in the use of OERs. A qualitative methodology based on grounded theory was implemented, together with the biographical method and digital ethnography, with in-depth interviews with nine women academics from different areas of knowledge from Venezuela, Costa Rica, and Uruguay. The results offer an insight into their professional identities and how this is configured in relation to education, open educational resources, and educational innovation in university teaching. Participation in the open education movement provides a space for empowerment and mobilisation, which contributes to a transformative identity, as an emerging habitus, that underpins educational innovation in this field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Educar is the property of Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona, Servei de Publicacions and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)