The purpose of this research is to describe how the mothers of children with disabilities in rural areas of Extremadura perceive care tasks and the subjective impact that these tasks have on their daily life and health, as well as the subjective assessment that these mothers make of the benefits and services of the Spanish welfare policy. An interpretative paradigm was selected, using a qualitative approach and a phenomenological design. Twelve mothers were included. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews. A discourse analysis of the narrative information was performed using open, axial, and selective coding processes and the constant comparative method. Three topics have been extracted from the findings of the analysis: (1) extensive care responsibilities, (2) impacts upon well-being and daily life, and (3) resources that “barely” help. The care tasks performed by mothers of children with disabilities in rural areas have an enormous impact on their daily life and health. This involvement in caregiving generates a significant occupational imbalance which has an impact on their mental health, and which causes economic and social problems.

Objective/BackgroundThe aim of this article was to analyze the needs of hospitalized adolescents with cancer in relation to the performance of meaningful activities as well as to explore the possible scenarios of occupational deprivation in hospital paediatric wards.MethodsThe study follows an ethnographical research approach using two techniques: participant observation and in-depth interviews, with constant comparison by data triangulation. Eight adolescents diagnosed with cancer aged between 15 years and 19 years (5 males and 3 females) were recruited from Toledo and Madrid in Spain.ResultsFive themes revealing the needs of adolescents with cancer in hospital environments were identified: (a) educational needs, (b) leisure needs, (c) physical space of the rooms, (d) interaction with medical personnel, and (e) lack of specific wards for adolescents.ConclusionThe lack of variety and availability of educational activities and leisure, and the subsequent changes of the individual physical, social, and cultural environments could cause situations of occupational deprivation, and also affect the health and quality of life of the individuals.

CLIL (Content and Language Integrated Learning) has been one of the major innovations that has been implemented in Spain in the last decades and many questions have arisen in relation to its effectiveness. The aim of this article is to report primary teachers’ perceptions of the most relevant aspects of CLIL teaching of Science and Social Science in Primary Education in the Region of Murcia. Their perceptions of this integrated approach are crucial to meet their needs, coordinate their efforts and develop good practice. Results from this research emphasize an extensive application of CLIL methodological guidelines and the use of a wide range of tools when evaluating learners’ competences. Additionally, they have expressed their satisfaction with language assistants when motivating pupils and fostering their oral skills and intercultural awareness. However, CLIL teachers believe Public Administration should provide more resources, further training and enhanced coordination to improve the quality of education under this paradigm.

RESUMEN Este artículo intenta explicar las características de la evaluación en la materia de Historia en lo referente a la tipología de preguntas, capacidades cognitivas, competencias históricas y tipos de contenidos que los exámenes y libros de texto demandan al alumnado de Educación Secundaria. Para ello se ha adoptado un diseño metodológico mixto, defendido en diversas investigaciones desde el área de didáctica de las ciencias sociales (BARCA, 2005; BARTON, 2005, 2012; GRANT, 2001; PRATS, 2002). Esta complementariedad de los enfoques cuantitativos y cualitativos creemos que nos permite acercarnos mejor a un fenómeno tan complejo como es la evaluación. Para el análisis cuantitativo se ha utilizado el paquete estadístico SPSS, en todo lo referente al estudio de frecuencias, medias, porcentajes, chi cuadrado, tablas de contingencia y análisis de la dependencia entre las variables. Por su parte, el tratamiento cualitativo se ha llevado a cabo a través de un análisis de cómo se ha construido la narrativa histórica en los exámenes y los libros de texto, a través de la frecuencia y repetición de hechos, conceptos, fechas y personajes. Además, hemos utilizado el programa Access para el procesamiento y vinculación de datos mediante la creación de tablas relacionales.

Background/Aim. One way to facilitate occupational therapy undergraduate students transferring their academic skills of data gathering and analysis to professional settings is to ensure they can competently use diagnostic reasoning. Nevertheless, there are several obvious gaps in empirical evidence related to the learning and development of this style of reasoning in occupational therapy undergraduates. The most important are related to promoting higher-order thinking and the use of information to solve problems in the context of professional practice. This study analyses undergraduates’ diagnostic reasoning and its changes during their education. Materials and Methods. This multicentre study was conducted with a descriptive observational design. The study took place at the University of Coruña (Spain), University of Castilla-La Mancha (Spain), and University of el Valle (Colombia). The sample was n=247. For data collection, a clinical case was specifically designed. IBM SPSS Statistics (v19) and EPIDAT 3.1 were used for the data analysis. Results. Participants identified and categorized occupational performance problems. However, they had difficulties when identifying and categorizing the occupational performance components (specifically, the symptoms and signs of the disease presented in the study case). They presented limitations to analyse and synthesize the information collected to develop an explanation of the occupational problems and their causes. Conclusions. Undergraduate students’ ability to analyse and synthesize information during data collection is poorly organized, so it makes the problem formulation difficult. This study contributes to the knowledge of undergraduates’ diagnostic reasoning features, specifically the undergraduate students’ capacities and limits to process information during the occupational assessment.

The main objective of this article is to analyze the cognitive level of the activities in History textbooks in Spain, England, and Portugal in the transition stage from Primary to Secondary Education (11–13 years), according to the country of origin, typology, and the concepts and disciplinary contents included. The design of this research is quantitative, descriptive, and cross-sectional. The non-probabilistic sample consists of 6,561 activities contained in 27 school textbooks from Spain, England, and Portugal. Descriptive and contrast analyses have been carried out using parametric tests. The results indicate that textbooks from Spain and Portugal mainly include activities situated between a basic and intermediate cognitive level while in England, the cognitive level of activities is medium or high. The ANOVA and Tukey B tests show significant differences between the cognitive level required in the activities and the typology of exercises, the concepts, and historical contents worked on. The activities with higher cognitive level correspond to those of creation and essays, the exercises that work on empathy and historical relevance, and that contain activities of social and economic history. In contrast, the activities with the lowest cognitive level are short questions and objective tests, those that work on first-order concepts (data and concrete facts), and those on the History of Art. The conclusion is that there is a need for a balanced presence of first-order content and historical thinking skills, the application in the classroom of a more active student-centered methodology, and the teachers’ conception of history teaching that prioritizes historical skills.

Objective: To describe how the assessors of dependency have perceived the process of implementation of the Dependency Act in Spain. Methods: A qualitative method was used to analyse interview data (discourse analysis). Purposive sampling was applied. Sixteen occupational therapists were included, who served as dependency assessors in Extremadura, a region of southern Spain. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews between February and March 2019, focused on the characteristic of the Dependency Act. A discourse analysis of the narrative information was performed using processes of open, axial, and selective coding, as well as the constant comparative method. Results: Three topics were identified: (1) Benefits of implementation, connected with the consideration as subjects of rights and the increase in resources. (2) Difficulties linked to the bureaucratization of the process, the lack of sensitivity of the scale of assessment, and the unequal access to benefits and services. (3) The impact of the 2012 budget cuts on financing and on dependent people and their families. Conclusions: The Dependency Act has established itself as a political tool that has generated important social and economic benefits. However, significant difficulties have emerged, which should be addressed to ensure better care for dependent persons.

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