This research consists of a quantitative analysis of the perspective of a group of university professors from different areas of knowledge and from 19 different Latin American countries on the use of humor and memes in virtual learning environments (VLEs) in higher education. The data have been obtained from an own-design survey, and the answers have been analyzed in a descriptive and inferential way with the aim of knowing the opinion of the 401 participants (professors) about the didactic effectiveness of humor and the benefits and employability of memes in virtual classrooms. The analysis differentiates the sample by the professors’ area of knowledge as the main variable, and by gender, age and teaching experience. As results, the participants give a high evaluation of humorous didactic resources, particularly memes, although the evaluation of their usability in the classroom is intermediate. In this sense, it is shown that the area of knowledge has a significant influence on opinions in this regard.
Rural teachers have the potential to be important agents of local development. To achieve this goal, they need to acquire high digital competence in order to effectively integrate technology into their pedagogical practices, thus enriching the learning experience of students and fostering their participation. Digital competence contributes to reducing the education gap between urban and rural areas, promoting educational equity and inclusion. High digital competence also enables rural teachers to address the specific challenges of their environment, such as cultural diversity, scarce resources, and low population density. Against this backdrop, this article presents a bibliometric review of the importance of digital competence in rural teachers in Spain, where the problem of rural depopulation, as in other regions of Europe, has been accentuated in recent years. The objective of the bibliometric review is both (i) to find the strengths and weaknesses that concern researchers in relation to the digital training of teachers in rural areas and (ii) to express them explicitly in order to contribute to propose solutions. The results reveal the growing academic and political attention being paid to this issue, highlighting the need for rural teachers to acquire digital skills to adapt to current educational demands. In addition, they point to the importance of developing specific policies and programs in Europe as well as providing training opportunities and ongoing support to ensure that teachers in rural contexts can acquire or strengthen their digital competence, thereby improving the quality of education in these areas.
In this work, quantitative research is carried out on the perceptions of early childhood education teachers and child psychologists about the incidence of bullying behaviors in early childhood education (3 to 6 years old) and their knowledge and experience in this regard. For this purpose, two questionnaires were used, each of them oriented to one of the two groups of professionals analyzed, whose answers were subjected to statistical analysis. As for results, it has been obtained that early childhood education teachers express having received deficient training in school bullying and have little experience in its detection and treatment. Furthermore, the teachers’ conception of bullying occurring in their own schools is not realistic and differs from the knowledge they have of the existence of bullying behavior in other schools. Likewise, the existence of action plans against bullying in the school conditions the teachers’ assessments. The assessments held by psychologists differ significantly from those of teachers, mainly in the identification of the origin of bullying (which teachers attribute to the use of digital technologies and psychologists to the social and family environment of the aggressor). Finally, some implications and recommendations in terms of the training of educational professionals on bullying and the need for greater collaboration between teachers and psychologists are reported.
This study deals with the descriptive analysis of the opinion of a pilot group of students at the University of Salamanca about the use of an innovative origami microscope: the Foldscope. Data were collected from an online satisfaction survey of 92 students of Plant Histology (Degree in Biology) during their laboratory practices. These surveys collected their opinions about the educational effectiveness of an innovative and economic foldable microscope made of paper. The foldscope is easy to use and can be used individually or collectively, thanks to its projection capability. The results show that the participants have a positive impression regarding the use of this tool to study plant structures, and they recommend its use in the years thereafter. In this regard, it is demonstrated that the price of microscopes is no longer a problem for the teaching of some subjects, such as Plant Histology.
In this work, quantitative research is carried out on the importance that educators give to literacy work in early childhood education classrooms and the impact that the COVID-19 pandemic and the use of facemasks have had on it. To this end, a survey designed for this purpose has been used, which has been passed on to a set of 112 Spanish early childhood educators. The teachers surveyed occupy different positions in the classroom (tutors, support technicians, specialists in bilingualism, therapeutic pedagogy and speech and hearing), and, in addition, they themselves learned to read from different methods of literacy learning (synthetic or analytical). The results found in this study indicate that educators express intermediate evaluations of the importance of literacy work in the classroom, higher if it is done through digital resources, and higher for the synthetic method than for the analytical method. In addition, the impact of the use of masks on literacy learning was rated as very negative. On the other hand, gaps have been identified in the above perceptions by the position occupied in the classroom and by the method used to learn to read. Finally, some actions are suggested to homogenize the perceptions of the different professionals, and some lines of research are proposed.
Universal accessibility in cultural heritage is a key challenge to ensure the inclusion of all visitors in historical and tourist environments. The aim of this research is to analyze the current state of research on universal accessibility to cultural heritage in Spain, identifying the key institutions, themes, and trends within this field. Additionally, it seeks to assess how these findings relate to national priorities and highlight gaps in the implementation of accessibility measures. This study employed the PRISMA 2020 framework to select and analyze 1035 scientific articles published between 2010 and 2025, retrieved from the Scopus and Web of Science databases. Bibliometrix (an R package) and Biblioshiny were used to analyze the data. The results show an exponential growth in publications since 2018, highlighting key areas such as accessible tourism, digitalization, the use of technologies for heritage documentation, urban planning, and geo-heritage conservation. It is concluded that accessibility in cultural heritage is an expanding interdisciplinary field with increasing international significance. It is recommended to continue exploring innovative technological solutions, strengthen governance strategies, and expand studies to rural and natural environments to ensure truly universal accessibility.