Luis Joaristi

Trilingualism (Spanish, English and Basque) in the educational system of the Basque country

Abstract The research presented here aims to show the results obtained in Spanish, Basque and English languages for a bilingual community – the Basque Country (in which two official languages coexist) – and in which a bilingual school education system has been established with three linguistic Models and classified as A, B and D (as the letter C is not normally used in Basque). These Models depend on the greater or lesser presence of Basque and Spanish, both as languages through which studies are learnt as well as vehicular languages. Although what is involved here is not a longitudinal study, data has been gathered over a four-year period (2000–2003) in order to verify that the results are stable on a yearly basis. Also requiring to be verified was whether the possible differences arising amongst pupils between the distinct linguistic Models were the same for three different age groups (12, 14 and 16 corresponding to three different school grades). Given the nested structure of the data, hierarchical linear models (HLM) have been employed for the statistical analysis of the same. The results obtained confirm that the greatest differences are in Basque between pupils in the different Models, while with Spanish and English the differences are less.

Trastornos alimentarios, intervenciones familiares y cambios en los perfiles del MMPI. Un estudio exploratorio

Resumen El Objetivo de esta investigación fue evaluar la eficacia de dos tipos de intervenciones—Terapia Familiar Sistèmica (TFS) y Grupo de apoyo apadres + terapia de grupo (GAP + TG)—enfunción de los cambiosproducidos en los perfiles de personalidad del MMPI de pacientes ambulatorios con trastorno alimentario (TA) al año del inicio de la intervención. 46 sujetos con TA, 8 con anorexia restrictiva (ANR), 15 con anorexia bulímica (ANB) y 23 con bulimia nerviosa (BN) {de acuerdo a los criterios del Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4a edición (American Psychiatric Association, 1994)} fueron distribuidas al azar en uno de los dos grupos de tratamientoy fueron evaluadas a través del MMPI, al comienzo y final de la intervención. Ambos tratamientos muestran disminuciones significativas en las puntuaciones del MMPI en el postratamiento, aunque estas intervenciones breves no fueron suficientes para normalizar todas las escalas. La TFS consiguió mayores disminuciones significativas con respecto al GAP + TG en algunas escalas, especialmente en pacientes con bulimia nerviosa (BN). Los resultados apoyan la eficacia de este tipo de intervenciones en la mejora de los perfiles de personalidad de las pacientes con TA.

Educational leadership as best practice in highly effective schools in the Autonomous Region of the Basque County (Spain)

This study presents part of a research project currently underway which aims to characterise the best practices of highly effective schools in the Autonomous Region of the Basque Country (Spain). Multilevel statistical modelling and hierarchical linear models were used to select 32 highly effective schools, with highly effective being taken to mean any school with higher-than-expected student results after adjusting for the effect of contextual factors. Subsequently, qualitative techniques were used to record the perceptions of the management teams, educational advisors and inspectors of the selected schools regarding the practices in place in their organisations. This paper presents the results obtained in relation to leadership. These results indicate that leadership comprises a number of different competences that are manifested to different extents in the different schools, although a set of elements was identified as being common to the majority, namely: positive leadership in the school management, a clearly defined mission shared by all professionals, a positive attitude to training and lifelong learning, the ability to foster the commitment and motivation of the teaching staff in relation to a common school project, support for teaching and learning processes, attention paid to questions of peaceful and harmonious coexistence and well-organised coordination.

Assessing the unidimensionality of the School and College Ability Test (SCAT, Spanish version) using non-parametric methods based on item response theory

The aim of this work is to analyze the dimensional structure of the Spanish version of the School and College Ability Test, employed in the process for the identification of students with high intellectual abilities. This test measures verbal and mathematical (or quantitative) abilities at three levels of difficulty: elementary (3rd, 4th, and 5th years in Primary school), intermediate (6th year in Primary school plus the 1st and 2nd years of Compulsory Secondary School or ESO), and advanced (3rd and 4th years of ESO plus the 1st and 2nd years of bachillerato – equivalent to High school). For each level there are two forms, X and Y. The research was undertaken with the results obtained from the application carried out for the validation and norming of the Spanish version of the test, and for which a representative sample of students from Navarre at these mentioned levels was taken. This study assessed the possible unidimensionality of the simplicity or the complexity of the structure of this test as an essential aspect of construct validity. To this end, the results were triangulated for the classic factorial techniques and non-parametric methods based on the item response theory.

Detection and Characterization of Highly Effective Schools in the Autonomous Community of the Basque Country Using Contextualized Cross- Sectional Attainment Models and Hierarchical Linear Models

The aim of this work is the identifi cation and characterization of highly effective schools in the Basque Autonomous Community. As criterion variables the scores in 2009 and 2010 Diagnostic Assessments in Spanish language, Basque language and Mathematics are used. Schools are considered as highly effective when there average performance is higher than the expected score once the effects of contextual variables have been controlled using hierarchical linear models. As a result, of the nearly 600 analyzed schools, 32 were identifi ed whose characteristics refl ect the diversity of the Basque educational system.