Academic institutions worldwide have had to adapt their methods of teaching and assessment due to COVID-19. In many Spanish universities exams moved online, affording students with opportunities to breach academic integrity that were not previously available to them. This paper uses the emerging research method of search engine data analysis to investigate the extent of requests for exam cheating information in Spain in the time period surrounding adjustments for the pandemic. The Internet data analytics technique is one that the paper proposes should be used more widely as an academic integrity research method.

The importance of pre-service teacher training regarding environmental education (EE) has been vastly demonstrated. This systematic review examined the existing evidence from studies evaluating and analysing the relationship between EE, including environmental competences and pre-service primary school teacher training. The literature review performed included 24 documents (22 peer reviewed journal articles and two doctoral theses). The strategy followed consisted in locating documents by a reliable search strategy; establishing the criteria for the selection of documents to analyse from the documents located and rigorously analysing the documents selected based on clear and precise criteria and dimensions. In general terms, the literature review analysis has emphasised the lack of environmental competences amongst pre-service teacher students and the gaps in the teacher training curriculums regarding EE. The overall scarcity of research in this area, jointly with certain gaps and methodological limitations, affirms the need for strengthening the evidence base.

This paper analyses the phenomenon of academic plagiarism among students enrolled in Secondary Education and High School. It is a subject poorly studied at pre-university level and very scantily discussed in the Spanish-speaking context. It investigates the frequency of committing plagiarism and the relationship between gender and procrastination and such practices. A questionnaire was administered to a representative sample (n=2,794). The results show that plagiarism is certainly present and widespread in the secondary classrooms. Furthermore, it shows that men have significantly higher levels of perpetration than women and than students who tend to leave the tasks until the last moment are more likely to plagiarize. The fruits of this research suggest the need to take into serious consideration the magnitude and severity of the problem identified; secondary schools should urgently plan and undertake measures in order to reduce and prevent the commission of this type of academic fraud. Secondly, results are useful to give clear guidance to teachers about the need for them to follow up and apply an effective control of the writing process of academic essays and tasks by students. Improving IT and library competences of the students has been identified as one of the main strategies needed to effectively address the problem.En este trabajo se analiza el fenómeno del plagio académico entre el alumnado de Educación Secundaria Obligatoria y Bachillerato. Se trata de un tema poco estudiado en los niveles preuniversitarios y muy escasamente tratado en el contexto hispanohablante. Se investiga la prevalencia de este fenómeno así como su relación con el género y la procrastinación. Los datos fueron obtenidos mediante la administración de un cuestionario a una muestra representativa (n=2.794). Los resultados del estudio muestran que las prácticas constitutivas de plagio están ampliamente extendidas en las aulas de los ciclos educativos medios. Además, se demuestra que los varones presentan niveles de perpetración significativamente superiores a los de las mujeres y que el alumnado que tiende a dejar los trabajos hasta el último momento tiene mayor propensión a cometer plagio. Los frutos de esta investigación sugieren la necesidad de tomar en seria consideración la magnitud y severidad del problema detectado. Los centros de educación secundaria deben proyectar y acometer de manera perentoria medidas en aras de reducir y prevenir la comisión de este tipo de fraudes académicos. Los resultados también hacen recomendable que los docentes hagan un seguimiento y un control efectivo del proceso de elaboración de los trabajos académicos. La mejora de las competencias informacionales del alumnado es señalada como una de las estrategias necesarias para encarar eficazmente el problema.

Purpose: In this paper, the results of an investigation aimed at analysing and comparing the environmental competences of future teachers undergoing training in two universities are presented. The purpose of this paper is to analyse the difference in the acquisition of environmental competences amongst two groups of students enrolled in two universities with different levels of introduction of the environmental education (EE) and sustainability contents in their curriculums. This objective is inserted into a wider finality: to provide recommendations regarding the redesign of pre-service teacher training curricula and learning programmes.Design/methodology/approach: A specifically designed questionnaire was used in this study to analyse the environmental competencies of students in the final year of their degree in primary education in two Spanish universities. One of them had a highly environmentally oriented programme, and the other had a scarcely environmentally oriented programme.Findings: Results show that no significant differences were observed in the results related to the greening level of the training programmes. Pre-service teachers have insufficient environmental knowledge, but with quite positive, responsible attitudes towards environmental issues, and pro-environmental actions that could be categorised as moderate. Results point to the need for further and better pre-service teacher training in environmental issues.Originality/value: One of the main factors in the appropriate treatment of EE in schools is teacher training. Despite this principle being widely recognised, not all pre-service teacher training programmes adequately address EE. The added value of this paper is the comparison established between the students that followed a degree with a high impact of the environmental competences in its curriculum and another one that has very few references to these competences in the curriculum.

En este artículo se evalúan las competencias ambientales (CA) del profesorado en formación inicial al comienzo y en la finalización del Grado de Maestro/a en Educación Primaria (GMEP) en una universidad española. Se ha desarrollado y validado un cuestionario con el fin de evaluar seis CA en relación con los conocimientos, las actitudes y los comportamientos ambientales de los y las estudiantes de la muestra (n = 341). Los resultados del estudio revelan que el profesorado en formación inicial carece de las CA suficientes con las que educar ambientalmente a su alumnado y que no existen diferencias en el grado de adquisición de estas competencias entre el alumnado de primer y cuarto curso del GMEP. Como resultado, se cuestiona el papel de la Universidad y los nuevos programas diseñados en el proceso de convergencia hacia el Espacio Europeo de Educación Superior y se sugieren algunas propuestas de mejora.