vol. 15 núm. 2 (2022)

The objective of this article is to present a pedagogical and didactic exercise, developed since 2009 in the Faculty of Architecture of the Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Medellín campus, through which the concept of “nature” was rescued and approached in the teaching of Architecture, Engineering and Construction programs. The methodology combines research, teaching and cultural reflection, which has generated a critical position on the teachinglearning exercise at a time that seems to privilege the image of the project and social figuration to the detriment of technical concepts and urban and rural eco-systemic balance. The results obtained from the statistical data of the curricular programs are encouraging, given the participation of students, their multiculturalism and interdisciplinarity. In conclusion, it could be inferred that an impact on the university community is possible and, more importantly, on the urban ecosystem of the metropolitan area whose capital is Medellín.

This study presents a description, analysis and reflection on the compulsory confinement of Spanish elementary school students due to the covid-19 pandemic. Schools were closed, and parents and children had to spend long days at home. Many families had limitations and various problems to be permanently at home and follow the telematics education. Relevant bibliography and quantitative data were used for the research, and a total of 20 interviews have been conducted: 10 parents and 10 elementary school teachers, who explained their experiences during confinement. The informants’ contributions show different situations experienced by families, as well as children and students. It is explained that the compulsory confinement and follow-up of virtual classes have been unequal according to the capacities and possibilities of the parents to be with, guide and help their children.

This research article aims to show an analysis about academic and non-academic factors that affect first semester engineering students at Universidad Santo Tomás, and their impact in the course of Differential Calculus. The methodology used is quantitative with a nonexperimental design and the instruments used were the databases of the reinforcement workshop offered by the Department of Basic Sciences to first semester students, as well as the grade base of the Differential Calculus course and the characterization form base of the student support committee. The results of the study show that about 78 % of the students fail the diagnostic assessment in mathematics that is developed before the reinforcement course, presenting the greatest problems in the topics of potentiation, factorization and equations. In addition, of the students who fail the reinforcement course, 46 % fail the Differential Calculus course. When analyzing the results of the post-test of the reinforcement course, it is evident that the percentage of success is increased in almost all the reinforced subjects; however, this percentage is still low. It is also confirmed that factors such as lack of previous knowledge, age and test anxiety play an important role in the transition between secondary and higher education, and have an impact on academic performance. Therefore, it is necessary to formulate student reinforcement and support strategies.

The executive functions of the brain are skills that influence the academic and social performance of human beings. The purpose of this article is to present an ICT-mediated teacher training plan to improve the executive functions of the brain in elementary school students, as well as an app oriented to elementary school students that will improve their executive functions. The methodology used for this study is a mixed methodology of descriptive scope, adopting the context, input, process, product (CIPP) evaluation model. The partial results show that ICT mediations (gamification) integrate a didactic strategy that improves the executive functions of the brain. Likewise, further research should continue with strategies that improve inhibitory control in elementary school students.

The purpose of this article is to analyze the relationship between three of the most relevant factors in the space layout of physical education classes in Colombia. This relationship considers the physical characteristics of the spaces used for classes in a representative sample of official schools in Bogotá, compared with the national regulations governing the curricular organization of the subject, together with the official construction standards for schools issued by agencies in charge of these matters in Colombia. This is a qualitative descriptive study with documentary review and supported by statistical and content analysis. The results indicate that the construction standards do not take into account the characteristics of the contexts or the theories and contents proposed in the national curricular standards, with the exception and without pedagogical justification of sports spaces. In conclusion, curricular standards assume space as an educational content that does not go beyond shaping spatial orientation. The construction standards omit the pedagogical debate in the construction of spaces.

The potential for community transformation that youth participation has is increasingly recognized in the political-practical-academic field. The article analyzes the methodological learning of our participatory digital project based on music and arts with Afro-Colombian and indigenous youth in Quibdó-Colombia, an area affected by conflict, violence and systemic marginalization. Based on the co-produced digital methodology, we reflect on the challenges and opportunities that arise from engaging youth in marginalized geographies through creative and digital forms of participation. As for covid-19, the challenges of digital exclusion worldwide have been highlighted and our findings provide practical considerations for planning inclusive digital projects with marginalized youth. These consideration underline the need for relevant contextualization in methodological and pedagogical approaches, along with the transdisciplinary approaches of pedagogical teams to harness the potential of music and the arts in fostering youth participation.

The following article presents the intervention carried out with first semester students of the Nursing and Bacteriology programs of the Universidad Católica de Manizales in the teaching of chemistry mediated by ICT. These programs are offered face-to-face, but due to the covid-19 contingency, they were offered virtually with the support of ICT. For this purpose, an initial survey was carried out to identify the students’ perception about the subject of chemistry, teaching through ICT and the use of virtual laboratories and simulators to promote laboratory practices. In this sense, it was possible to analyze the change that was obtained once the academic semester ended, where students gave a satisfactory response to the teaching of chemistry and laboratory practices through the use of ICT as a pedagogical tool. It was possible to conclude that the educational processes supported by ICT tools favored the disposition and motivation of students towards the processes of teaching and learning chemistry as an experimental science, all this with the support of teachers and institutional guidelines.

The objective of this article is to understand the importance of Problem-Based Learning (PBL) as a pedagogical strategy for the teaching of Biology and Chemistry in the Nursing program of the Universidad Metropolitana of Barranquilla. The methodology consisted of a classroom action research, which was based on focus group interviews, to identify the perception that professors and students had about problem-based learning (PBL), after which PBL was implemented during the period 2016-1 and was the first approach of professors to this didactic strategy, which was done through an induction by an expert professor on the subject and the completion of a course on PBL. For 2016-2 the Biology and Chemistry professors began to apply PBL, following the seven steps of the Maastricht University model. As a result, it was obtained that students developed environmental awareness, which was evidenced in their participation in training activities in the classroom and in the university community, during the development of environmental education campaigns, as well as their behavior towards environment care and preparation of proposals for its improvement in the Universidad Metropolitana and its surroundings. In conclusion, PBL contributed to the construction of knowledge, in accordance with the theories of meaningful learning, increasing the degree of motivation of students in participating in the activities of their training process.

The characteristic of universities is that they are formed into centers of creation and production of knowledge, and therefore of concepts. Hence, it is timely and convenient, as is the objective of this project, to propose a possible notion of university governance, as a derived, polysemic concept, at the center of tensions, but at the same time it has an open, complex, paradigmatic character (for its polysemy) and no doubt because of its critical nature. University institutions are organized, have a government and management, which facilitates power relations with the community, with the actors it leads, and the presence and interrelation in the external environment. The  approximation to the concept of university governance, as a question that is resolved in this work, is that exercise of integration of institutional government, governance and management to guarantee the interaction of interest groups for the achievement of the institutional mission and the interaction with the environment. Some aspects that make up its architecture are those that refer to university government, university governance, management, good governance policy. The methodology used is registered as documentary, reconstructive, hermeneutical within qualitative design. 

El rápido trasegar de la vida ha traspasado los ritmos habituales de aprendizaje en el tiempo y en el modo de tradicionales. La rápida llegada y lenta partida de la reciente pandemia por la que aún atraviesa la humanidad nos arroja indicios suficientes sobre la urgencia de aprender a adaptarse a las circunstancias a todos los niveles. El temor al cambio, arraigado de manera diferente en cada uno de los momentos de la vida, requiere posturas rápidas para responder a las grandes transformaciones humanas. Educar para el cambio, para la adaptación a la vida como sea que se presente; aprender a pensar rápido para responder con calma, y tantas otras grandes convicciones que la educación nos presenta tan a menudo, ya no dan espera. Las crisis llegan cada vez más pronto y se suceden con mayor rapidez, la novedad es cada vez más inmediata y la caducidad también; la innovación clama cada vez más por un estilo de aprendizaje más que por la resolución de un problema puntual. Este panorama nos interpela a todos por una educación más reflexiva y crítica, pero a la vez innovadora y permanente; la investigación y la reflexión en los trabajos académicos y en las prácticas educativas requieren una adecuada divulgación que favorezca su visibilidad e impacto.

The irruption of the metaverse in the information and knowledge society has brought with it a new way of relating and learning. The presence of the metaverse in everyday life is also providing a new vision of educational technology. The new ways of learning have qualitatively transcended the academic environment and a new environment that is in permanent social construction is beginning to gain ground, although it is about to become a personal construction, tailored to each person. Formal and informal educational technology provides new opportunities and training contexts for students, overflowing the usual world and focusing on other worlds from new perceptions, all of them mediated by technology. This article considers aspects related to the metaverse and its implications in learning processes.

The purpose of this article is to describe the most representative characteristics that influence the vocational guidance of the participants linked to the adolescent criminal responsibility system (SRPA, for its initials in Spanish). Using a descriptive qualitative approach, surveys and interviews, ad hoc instruments were applied to a sample of nine adolescent graduates and 10 professionals, respectively, assigned to the measure called Specialized Attention Center (CAE). The results show the identification of causes and consequences of criminal behavior, risk and protection factors, as well as care strategies, the fundamental role of the family in the processes and the approach on rights, which promote, condition and demand vocational guidance in the context. Vocational guidance is based on a comprehensive approach to the reality of each adolescent, the reduction of risk factors, the articulated and timely professional support, to the adolescent and the family; furthermore, it is consolidated by co-responsibly assisting in the construction of viable life projects and ends with dignifying the human being and the reduction of delinquency.

MOOCS correspond to an educational innovation that has generated significant academic interest in recent years, due to their possibilities of access and democratization of knowledge. However, most MOOCS-related literature is addressed from the student’s perspective, so there is a gap in the analysis of the role and implications of the teacher in the teaching-learning processes in this type of environment. In accordance with the above, this article aims to analyze the literature available on MOOCS from the instructor’s perspective. For this purpose, a systematic literature review was carried out using the Scopus database. The results revealed four thematic categories on MOOCS from the teacher’s perspective: first, MOOCS as a teacher training strategy; second, teacher’s perceptions of this type of courses; third, the teaching role in the design and development of courses; and fourth, the motivations and challenges for teaching in this type of environment. The conclusions highlight the need to further deepen the role of teachers in MOOCS training. Likewise, the need to advance in the systematization of teaching competences that could be enhanced by the use of MOOCS in the educational field is raised.

This article is part of the research: The Knowledge of the Experience in Early Childhood Education in Bogota: A Reconstruction from The Teachers’ Pedagogical Stories, whose objective is to identify the knowledge of the experience built by a group of women teachers from two official institutions during the last decades. In this perspective, the article presents an overview of the 1980s and 1990s in relation to the governmental guidelines for early childhood education and their connection with the pedagogical practices of the women teachers. For this purpose, a review and thematization of documents was carried out which included guidelines of the Colombian Institute of Family Welfare and the Ministry of National Education, education policies, as well as government plans of the aforementioned period. Based on this, a path was built that draws the transitions of early childhood education towards its positioning in the public debate. This enables to identify the tensions, challenges and pending commitments with early childhood and their women teachers in Colombia, specifically, regarding their professional status, the identity of their practices, as well as the sense and meanings of early childhood education.

The objective of this research was to understand the relationship between educational practices and power relations that are generated in the education of an educational institution in the city of Medellin. The methodology was qualitative and the case study was used as a research strategy. The sample consisted of five teachers and 10 kindergarten children. Information was collected through semi-structured interviews, non-participant observation, materialized in interactive workshops and participant observation. It was found that power relationships emerge in educational contexts and it is possible to establish that, through bodily expressions, children show aspects related to authority and submission based on the power relationships that are generated in educational processes; in addition, each actor involved in this process exercises authority and power in the classroom; likewise, activities specific to each role are established, teacher or student, to control daily situations.

The objective of this paper is to present the impact on eating practices of migrant families with children in early childhood in the city of Cali. The methodology is a typical research in the field of cultural studies with a qualitative approach and ethnographic method; it was based on interpreting the voices of women from the Colombian Pacific, participants in training workshops in traditional cuisine of the SENA, and a pilot proposal of a differential menu from the Pacific for early childhood of Afro-descendants was made, in which the reconstruction of the sensitive memory, its taste history and its eating traditions were explored. As a result, it was found that the eating practices of the Afro-descendant cuisine of the Pacific are part of the intangible cultural heritage of Colombia. These are under continuous tension due to factors such as globalization, the loss of biodiversity in the territories, the fragile food security of the communities and the displacement faced by the inhabitants due to poverty and armed conflict. It was concluded that Afro-descendant families migrating to the city of Cali are under conditions of cultural uprooting, however, they find strategies and ways to overcome the loss of their eating traditions based on memory and cultural reconstruction practices in the new territory.