Calixto Gutierrez-Braojos

Future time orientation and learning conceptions: effects on metacognitive strategies, self-efficacy beliefs, study effort and academic achievement

During the past decade, research on the constructive learning process has been conducted mainly from two perspectives: student approaches to learning (SAL) and self-regulated learning (SRL). The SAL perspective has highlighted the role of learning conceptions with respect to other topics involved in constructive learning processes, whereas recently the SAL perspective has emphasised the effects of the future time perspective (FTP) and self-efficacy beliefs about these topics. Based on these two lines of research (SRL and SAL), using path analysis, we explored the direct and indirect effects of FTP and learning conceptions on self-efficacy, metacognitive strategies, effort and academic performance. Likewise, we identified some patterns that combine specific factors related to these variables. Participants in the present study were 100 (84% females, 16% males) Spanish fourth year university students enrolled in the Social Sciences Degree Programme. The ages of the students ranged from 18 to 49 (M = 22.02; SD = 3.68) and their participation was voluntary and anonymous. Likert-scale inventories were used to obtain data from students: FTP; learning conceptions; metacognitive strategies scale; and self-efficacy beliefs for SAL. On the one hand, the path analysis showed interesting indirect and direct relationships between topics with regard to key constructs of each of these research perspectives (SRL/SAL). However, these results do not coincide with the body of knowledge about FTP. On the other hand, results obtained using cluster and discriminant analysis revealed three specific patterns: a meaning orientation to learning and the future, a reproductive orientation to learning and the present, and an unusual pattern explained by the influence of historical-cultural characteristics on learning practices in educational contexts. We consider that this last pattern presents relevant implications for educational practice.

Exploring collective cognitive responsibility and its effects on students’ impact in a knowledge building community / Explorando la responsabilidad cognitiva colectiva y sus efectos sobre el impacto de los estudiantes en una comunidad para la creación del conocimiento

Abstract This study analyses and discusses a theoretical model that explains students’ impact in a knowledge community supported by a virtual platform (Knowledge Forum). Participants were 72 university students enrolled in the fifth course of a social sciences degree programme. First, a descriptive study is carried out that includes the explanatory elements of the students’ impact in the knowledge community (commitment to collective cognitive responsibility, cognitive complexity, creativity of the constructions in the platform and efficacy in evaluating impacting contributions generated in the community). Then, the application of a path analysis, using the bootstrap procedure, provides information about the relevance of each element (e.g., cognitive complexity) in explaining the students’ impact in the knowledge community. Based on the results, the article highlights the importance of designing and managing virtual environments that can facilitate the development of competences favouring collective cognitive responsibility and, consequently, increase the symmetry of the students’ impact and the advancement of the community’s knowledge.

Hybrid learning environment: Collaborative or competitive learning?

The aim of this study is to analyze the effect of different conditions of face-to-face learning on the participation and learning of students in the virtual community. In particular, we analyze the effect of collaboration vs intergroup competition learning on interdependence, regulation of socio-cognitive conflict, participation, and the quality of the contributions in a virtual learning platform. This study took place in an educational research course. The participants in the full investigation were 36 (94.44% females) undergraduates enrolled in the subject of educational research, which was part of a 4-year social education degree program. A Latin Squares design was applied to carry out the full investigation. The results show that conditions of collaboration without competition in face-to-face environments facilitate better quality of learning to a greater extent. In addition, there are no benefits of intergroup competition over individual competition learning. Thus, in this study, collaborative learning designs without any competition could be considered more consistent with the goal that underpins the main right to education: Each student is able to achieve what he has to achieve, taking advantage of the abilities of each and every agent in the learning community (teacher and students) to do so. These results are not consistent with previous studies. We suggest that characteristics of the sample could explain these differences between studies.