This paper describes and analyses teacher professional development actions and learning within the context of Higher Education in a Spanish public university. Seven teachers from different areas of knowledge and with different levels of teaching experience in the university participated in the study. Individual class journals were interpreted along with recordings of team sessions to investigate the teaching actions designed with regard to the teaching-learning process over the course of four academic years. Team-based teacher professional development was viewed as a collaborative rather than an individual process. Its impact was analysed following the model of domains developed by Clarke and Hollingsworth : personal (conceptions of teaching), practical (actions carried out), external (resources and context), and consequences (learning outcomes for the students). The results signalled changes in the four domains derived from deliberate and regulated processes of action and reflection. On account of the decisive impact of professional development, there is evidence of: (1) mutual influence between faculty staff, students, and social organisations, which either fosters or inhibits professional improvement; (2) students’ learning outcomes, emotions, and motivations. External conditions, particularly time constraints and institutional rigidity, on the contrary, acted as barriers to professional development.

The objective of this work is to create, and validate, a questionnaire aimed at assessing those actions undertaken by school management teams to promote inclusion in compulsory education sector in Spain. It is based on the perspective of teaching teams (members of management teams and teachers). To determine the psychometric properties of the questionnaire a descriptive, exploratory factorial and confirmatory factorial analysis was performed. In the pilot phase of the instrument, 243 members of teaching teams participated. The results obtained confirm that it is a valid and reliable scale with a bifactorial structure. The first of these factors includes actions carried out by the management teams to energise inclusive culture in their schools and thus turn them into inclusive communities. The other set of actions includes interventions with the aim of improving the training of students and creating professional learning communities.

This study analyzes the use of e-portfolios in Higher Education, specifically, participants' opinion concerning various aspects of the experience and the teaching methods used. Its main purpose is to determine the influence of professors in student satisfaction in this virtual environment, through a descriptive study performed using a mixed focus that combines quantitative and qualitative data analysis. The data collection instruments were a questionnaire for recording the students' opinions and a structured interview of three professors. The study's sample of 251 was drawn from students who were enrolled in different subjects. According to the results obtained, the professor is a decisive variable in student satisfaction when analyzing pedagogical issues concerning the e-portfolio, students' opinions about the professor's teaching actions, and usability of the platform. The students' opinions differ most on issues of time management and collaborative learning, but also on issues such as participation, motivation, and reflection on learning.

The e-portfolio is a tool increasingly used in Higher Education due to the benefits it holds, especially with regards to facilitating processes of evaluation and reflective learning. The main goal of this study was the construction of a questionnaire to analyse EP use in a Spanish University and to ensure its reliability and validity for use within relevant samples. To perform this task, we proposed a three-phase procedure: a development phase based on a literature review and the subsequent proposal of items; an evaluation phase, with revision based on experts’ judgment; and an analysis phase, in which the instrument’s reliability and validity (N = 251) were evaluated through factor analyses and descriptive statistical analyses according to dimension, degree of internal consistency and the relationships uncovered amongst the variables. As a result the Questionnaire on the E-Portfolio in Higher Education is proposed. It is composed of 32 items divided between three dimensions: Pedagogical considerations, academics’ teaching and usability. The analyses performed show the questionnaire to be valid and reliable for its proposed purpose. The questionnaire may be useful for HE academics who use the EP and for educational administrators who wish to analyse educational practices of this kind.

The article presents the construction and validation process of a questionnaire designed to study student teachers' beliefs about cultural diversity. The study, beyond highlighting the complexity involved in the study of beliefs, emphasises their relevance in implementing inclusive educational processes that guarantee the right to a good education for all. The questionnaire was administered to 1464 students from the different Teacher Education specialties. The results show that the instrument has a satisfactory internal consistency and is structured in seven components that largely correspond to the theoretical proposals used as the basis for constructing the questionnaire. The actions and analyses performed in the process of elaborating this inventory represent an advance compared to other similar studies in this line of research. From a methodological point of view, they provide detailed information about the questionnaire's psychometric characteristics, reliability and validity, with particular emphasis on the empirical data stemming from its application. From a conceptual point of view, the study incorporates beliefs related to different theoretical models of attention to cultural diversity, as well as their possible practical derivations at different levels of specificity.

The debate about diversity in Spanish universities is fairly recent, and indeed non-existent from the perspective of leadership. This paper examines the descriptions and justifications given by leaders of public universities in Spain with regard to institutional diversity agendas, as well as actions taken or planned to include traditionally excluded collectives within higher education. A total of 32 public university leaders were interviewed from 5 universities. Results show different interpretations of diversity agendas, with them being explained in different ways and being perceived as having different purposes (naturalization, difference, and inequality). Each interpretation is differentiated by its reach, motivation, stance with regard to the institution, target groups, and proposals. Reports overlap and share three common agendas. This demonstrates a lack of clarity around conceptions of diversity and shows the impact of assuming different standpoints when exercising leadership to evaluate a given agenda.