Education and gender equity are of high priority in the list of objectives when looking to achieve sustainable development; however, various studies have analysed that these objectives are far from being reached. The goal of this paper was to investigate the influence that cooperative learning has on academic performance and on the gender gap in the subject of Maths. A total of 14,122 students between the ages of 10 and 19 took part in the study. The hypothesis posed was that gender differences observed in Maths would significantly be reduced in those classrooms in which cooperative learning had a higher degree of implementation. In the results, the analysis of the regression of means and gradients showed that gender predicts Maths results in a positive manner (estimated beta = 0.12, p < 0.01) and interacts with cooperative learning by taking a negative value (−0.26) and with an associated critical value less than 0.05. In other words, the relation between cooperative learning and Math grades is significantly higher in males than in females. However, females achieve better marks, which generates a certain relation of equity. These results prove that cooperative learning can reduce gender differences in the learning of Maths.

Active pedagogies and specifically cooperative learning have been described as effective tools for inclusion and educational equity, a key concept in objective 4 within the Sustainable Development Goals. The aim of this study was to test the temporal stability of a cooperative learning (CL) over two academic years and to analyse its effects on achievement in mathematics. The sample consisted of 6456 students enrolled in school in Spain, aged between 10 and 15 years. The results showed some consistency in the use of this methodology during two school years. Mathematics scores correlated positively with all elements of CL in each of the separate school years. However, logistic regression data showed a significant drop in mathematics. In contrast, during the same period, four of the five elements of CL correlated positively with the results.

Resumen:Los estudios de Grado de Maestro de Primaria, mención de inglés, tienen como objetivo habilitar a los futuros docentes para impartir la asignatura de Lengua Inglesa al alumnado comprendido entre los 6 y 12 años. Este artículo analiza la percepción que los futuros docentes tienen sobre la formación recibida con relación a la competencia en comunicación lingüística y competencia metodológica en didáctica de la lengua inglesa. El objetivo principal de la investigación es tener un mejor conocimiento de la autoeficacia percibida por los futuros docentes, una línea que permanece relativamente inexplorada en España y que, sin duda, requiere mayor atención por la posible influencia de este constructo en el rendimiento de los docentes y en el proceso de enseñanza y aprendizaje. Los participantes, 37 estudiantes del último año del Grado de Maestro de Primaria, mención de inglés, de la Universidad de Oviedo, completaron un cuestionario de 50 ítems que medía su autoeficacia lingüística y metodológica. Se realizaron análisis de la varianza para explorar posibles diferencias en las respuestas de los encuestados. El principal hallazgo de la investigación es que los participantes con competencia en comunicación lingüística más alta mostraron los valores más bajos en los ítems de autoeficacia metodológica, mientras que aquellos cuya competencia lingüística es menor reportaron porcentajes más elevados de autoeficacia metodológica. Estos resultados proporcionan una nueva perspectiva sobre las creencias relacionadas con la formación lingüística y metodológica recibida en la universidad, y ponen de manifiesto la necesidad de profundizar en el concepto de autoeficacia docente.