The academic dropout of higher education students represents one of the most significant challenges that university institutions have to face today. This research analysed the university academic trajectory of students who dropped out of university for good. The aim of this paper is to examine in depth the factors that influence the idea of the construction of academic dropout and its relationship with the difficulties of adaptation to the university training system. A qualitative study was carried out in which the interview technique was applied to n = 34 dropout students belonging to three Spanish autonomous communities. The results made it possible to identify and examine students' difficulties in adapting to university studies in greater depth. The interviews revealed contextual and emotional details that contributed to dropout, such as personal and professional challenges and a lack of emotional support. The findings lead to the need to approach the issue from a holistic viewpoint in order to address the different reasons behind university dropouts. This broad view of the academic trajectories of university students who drop out is a benchmark for strategies to improve student retention and success in higher education.

La educación superior se caracteriza por una masificación de estudiantes en determinadas titulaciones y una progresiva despersonalización del proceso de enseñanza y aprendizaje. Esta realidad justifica la necesidad de analizar los procesos de acción tutorial que se desarrollan en la actualidad. Este trabajo tiene como objetivo indagar en varios factores asociados a los principales agentes implicados en dicho proceso: tutor (perfiles y funciones) y alumnado (necesidades). Se parte de una metodología tipo encuesta en la que se construye y se somete a procesos de validación un instrumento distribuido entre los estudiantes de grado de la Universidad de Huelva, con el objetivo de obtener un modelo teórico de referencia desde el que valorar las interacciones entre los factores emergentes. Como resultados, cabe destacar un modelo teórico en el que existen correlaciones entre el perfil del tutor, y regresiones o influencias de estos perfiles sobre las funciones y las necesidades de los estudiantes; de la misma manera, se visibilizan dos tipologías de tutor universitario que priorizan los aspectos académicos y personales de la tutoría respectivamente. Ambos perfiles llevan asociados unos tipos de funciones que vendrán a dar respuesta a las necesidades que presentan los estudiantes a lo largo de su paso por la universidad y que apoyan las tesis del avance de la tutoría universitaria hacia un modelo integral en el que la dimensión personal cobra una especial relevancia.

Cooperative learning is one of the active teaching and learning methodologies with a growing presence in the different educational stages in recent times. The aim of this work is to apply an instrument previously validated in university education to find out to what extent the fundamental elements of cooperative learning are potentiated. The Cooperative Learning Questionnaire (CLQ) is used with a sample of 500 students at the University of Huelva (Spain). The outcomes express, on the one hand, high scores on the items that make up the different basic elements of cooperative learning, as well as high positive correlations. Moreover, psychometric analysis of the instrument results in a high reliability, organising the elements of cooperative learning into three factors. In conclusion, this methodology is confirmed to be potentiated through the study plans.

Most studies about school violence focus their analysis on the stages of primary and secondary education with little research being available on this subject at the university level. Taking this reality as a point of departure and making use of a survey-type methodology, this study investigates the perception of students at the University of Huelva (Spain). This study is concerned with the frequency with which they consider that different types of school violence appear, whether carried out by other students or by professors of the University. Specifically, this study is based on the adaptation of the CUVE3-ESO to a university context and its application to a sample made up of 337 students at the University of Huelva. Their psychometric properties have been analyzed. Descriptive analyses of the studied variables have also been carried out. By way of discussion and conclusions, on the one hand, it is worth highlighting the identification of certain disruptive behaviors in the classroom, as well as verbal violence between students and exclusionary teacher violence towards certain students, in terms of having a preference for some students (M=2.56), disliking some (M=2.25) and ignoring others (M=2.06). These behaviors are presented as the most common forms of violence at the University (and have also been detected at other educational levels). On the other hand, this study corroborates that the adaptation of the instrument used is reliable and valid for evaluating violence in a university context.

El presente trabajo describe el proceso de diseño y validación de un cuestionario que mide y analiza el nivel de preferencia y utilidad que atribuyen los estudiantes universitarios que cursan asignaturas mediante el desarrollo de propuestas alternativas innovadoras a través de Trabajo por Proyectos e Investigación (PTI), basados en una dinámica de aula invertida, activa y cooperativa, una evaluación formativa que tiene en cuenta tanto el proceso como el resultado utilizando rúbricas que asignan valoración en distintos niveles de logro, materiales diversos y plurales o el seguimiento progresivo de las producciones mediante carpetas de aprendizaje, entre otros. A través de un diseño metodológico de tipo encuesta (descriptivo y transversal), el instrumento se articula en 46 ítems que se agrupan en cinco categorías de doble respuesta –preferencia estudiante y preferencia profesorado-, analizadas a partir de la aplicación a 640 estudiantes universitarios. Los resultados obtenidos ofrecen cualidades psicométricas satisfactorias del instrumento que permiten considerar su utilización para medir la preferencia y utilidad de los factores asociados a los procesos de cambio mediante innovaciones en la enseñanza universitaria, señalando la coherencia en los dos niveles de preferencia y se define la tendencia de la respuesta. Las conclusiones aportan referencias fiables sobre la propuesta de innovación docente, mostrando la eficacia y utilidad para el aprendizaje que el alumnado asigna a distintos aspectos desarrollados durante el proyecto respecto a estrategias utilizadas, material o recursos, tipo de apoyos, evaluación y rendimientos. En este sentido, sirven para corregir determinadas propuestas educativas y mejorar modelos para seguir avanzando en planteamientos alternativos. De ahí, que esta investigación, ayude a entender y transformar las prácticas transformadoras en la universidad.

We present the validation of a questionnaire for compulsory secondary school students (seventh to tenth grade), designated “Educational learning environments for ESO pupils” (CEApA_ESO), for the purpose of evaluating learning environments. Although many instruments have been developed in this area, our work attempts to comprehensively cover some factors that most influence learning environments from the students’ perspective. Therefore, we included physical, learning, teaching and motivational elements, by adapting different already-validated scales to our intended overall approach and the Spanish context. We conducted a pilot study with 207 students from four grades (two classes per educational level). We performed descriptive and factor analyses with maximum likelihood extraction method and varimax rotation to identify factors underlying each scale. The factors extracted from each scale were used to evaluate the fit of the model, using the AMOS v.18 software for structural equation analysis, taking as reference the criteria set by Byrne (Structural equation modeling with AMOS: Basic concepts, applications, and programming, Taylor & Francis Group, 2010) and Kline (Principles and practice of structural equation modeling, The Guilford Press, 2010) (CMIN/DF between 2 and 5, CFI and IFI > 0.9, RMSEA < 0.06 and HOELTER > 200). Finally, we present the factorial validity of the complete scale and analyse the internal consistency of the scale and its subscales using Cronbach’s alpha coefficient. This instrument, with adequate psychometric properties, offers educators and researchers a valid tool for assessing the learning environments of their schools.