No abstract

Academic dropout among university students represents one of the problems faced by educational systems. This preliminary study presents an approach to the phenomenon of academic failure at the Pablo de Olavide University in Spain through the determination of the factors linked to students continuing with their studies, and the subsequent establishment of risk groups. The study consisted of applying an instrument to diagnose the risk of academic dropout among a sample of 70 students from the Pablo de Olavide University (from now on, UPO). The instrument was applied at the beginning of the second semester. Unlike the objective posed by the aforementioned authors (the search for factors linked to students continuing their university studies), the use that we made of the survey was to predict non-persistence (dropout). The average overall score achieved for all of the items allows us to confirm that the student population surveyed seems to be more oriented to continuing with their studies than dropping out, although 15.71% of them show a high risk of dropping out, and most notably more than half of those taking a degree in Business Studies present this high level of risk. In the case of the UPO students the direct associations between the independent variables regarding the dependent variable were present in all of the factors (attitude and behavior, commitment, socio-economic background, and motivation) with a value of p lower than 0.05. Comparing these data to those obtained with students from different universities in Andalusia, it was found that the risk groups of UPO students are less inclined to dropping out than those from other universities, and their level of commitment is lower, although their attitude and behavior are somewhat better. Finally, socio-economic background is a less significant factor for UPO students.

The research question was inquiring the undergraduates' perception of their professors' practice regarding whether they make use of the creative problem solving (CPS) as a competence for teaching. The study was performed in a public university located in the urban area of Merida City, Yucatan, Mexico, where a total of 247 undergraduates from the Education, Economy and Psychology schools participated. A Teacher Practice Perception Scale (TPPS) was used to know how undergraduates perceive the professor's practice under the creative problem solving, the facilitating and hindering factors for developing creative solutions, the importance of CPS for the curriculum and proposals to develop CPS in the university instructional practice. The results show that (a) all undergraduates perceive CPS at a high level of importance, (b) Psychology undergraduates perceive a medium-high use of CPS by their professors, and (c) Psychology undergraduates perceive at a higher level the facilitating factors of this process.

Music has multiple characteristics that make it an ideal tool for teaching and learning languages. Although some research has been done on this subject, there are still many areas to explore. This quantitative research presents survey data from 178 students of Spanish as a Foreign Language to better understand how adult learners use music and other media in their practice of Spanish. Non-parametric statistical tests were carried out. Data showed participants used music more frequently than other media as a means to practice Spanish outside of the classroom, despite having difficulties understanding the lyrics. Also, musical training was found to be an indicator of a higher level of lyrical comprehension. It was concluded that the growing popularity of Spanish language music, changes in music consumption, and the democratization of listening platforms— along with the ability that songs have to generate well-being and to create links, as well as to represent the target culture—were decisive factors in the use of songs in the learning of Spanish as a foreign language.