Enrique Sánchez-Rivas, Manuel Fernando Ramos Núñez, Magdalena Ramos Navas-Parejo and Juan Carlos De La Cruz-Campos
The aim of this paper is to explore whether the use of an active learning methodology implemented through a mobile phone can help future teachers to develop more effective reading…
Abstract
Purpose
The aim of this paper is to explore whether the use of an active learning methodology implemented through a mobile phone can help future teachers to develop more effective reading promotion activities than those based on traditional learning methodologies.
Design/methodology/approach
A study was conducted based on the comparison of perceptions of two groups of teacher training students. The experimental group was trained in an active methodology to promote reading on mobile phones, whilst the control group was trained in a classical methodology also using the same devices. Variables were observed using a self-administered questionnaire, and the scores obtained were analysed from their descriptive statistics of the comparison of means of Kruskal–Wallis H test.
Findings
The results showed that students perceived significant improvements associated with active learning methodology. The variables with the most remarkable results were those related to better use of the class, participation and satisfaction. However, the ubiquitous variable obtained the fewest differences, maybe because both learning methodologies were applied using mobile devices.
Originality/value
The conclusions of this study clearly suggest that combining active learning methodologies and the use of mobile phones to promote reading could lead to better results than applying traditional learning methodologies. The value of this study paves the way for future research to move forward in the discovery of effective teaching strategies based on active methods and mobile devices.
Details
Keywords
Juan Carlos López Díez and Juan Velez-Ocampo
This chapter is intended to present the onset, evolution, and decline of Compañía Minera El Zancudo, considered the largest Colombian company in the nineteenth century…
Abstract
Purpose
This chapter is intended to present the onset, evolution, and decline of Compañía Minera El Zancudo, considered the largest Colombian company in the nineteenth century. Additionally, the chapter will examine its role in both the development of manufacturing industries and the introduction of modern capitalism in the country.
Methodology/approach
The case is based on secondary information collected according to a documentary research method in which the authors selected, categorized, interpreted, and confronted different sources concerning El Zancudo.
Findings
The inception and evolution of El Zancudo involved local and foreign knowledge, techniques, and capital investments that contributed to the company growing to the point of reaching the unprecedented figure of 1,350 workers in the year 1890. Its transition from a failed local mine to a prosperous and intricate business group is full of referrals and links to foreign investment, knowledge transfer, industrial development, and an orientation toward entrepreneurship that contributed to the understanding of subsequent enterprises not only in the Antioquia region but also across the entire country.
Research limitations/implications
This case study was written using limited reliable secondary sources about El Zancudo. Other significant Colombian companies in the nineteenth century (Ferrería de Pacho, Ferrería de Amagá, Empresa Textilera de Samacá, and Cervecería Bavaria) and their links to El Zancudo were mentioned but not deeply analyzed in this chapter.
Practical implications
The clear-cut causes that led El Zacudo to close its operations within the first decades of the twentieth century are worthy of discussion, not only by scholars and business practitioners, but also by policy makers in order to understand the phenomenon and possibly prevent existing companies from failing in a similar manner.
Originality/value
This case brings together the scattered literature on El Zancudo and analyzes the drivers and consequences of both its rise and fall, taking into consideration the specific historical, political, and economic contexts, furthermore, it establishes some linkages between this case and other companies under similar situations.
Details
Keywords
– The purpose of this paper is to analyze the circumstances that have conditioned the development of education in Spain from the enlightenment to the present day.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to analyze the circumstances that have conditioned the development of education in Spain from the enlightenment to the present day.
Design/methodology/approach
Multidisciplinary scientific approach that combines the interpretation of the legal texts with the revision of the doctrinal and theoretical contributions made on the issue.
Findings
From the beginning of the nineteenth century, the history of education in Spain has been marked by constant fluctuations between the reactionary instincts, principally maintained by the Catholic Church and the conservative social classes, and the progressive experiments, driven by the enlightened and the liberals first, and the republicans and the socialists later. As a consequence of that, the fight for finishing with illiteracy and guaranteeing universal schooling underwent permanent advances and retreats, preventing from an effective modernization of the Spanish educative system. On the one hand, renewal projects promoted by teachers and pedagogues were inevitably criticized by the ecclesiastical hierarchy, obsessed with the idea of preserving the influence of religion on the schools. On the other hand, successive governments were weak in implementing an educational policy which could place Spain at the level of the other European and occidental nations.
Originality/value
At the dawn of the twenty-first century, although the country has overcome a good part of its centuries-old backwardness, increasing economic difficulties and old ideological splits keep hampering the quality of teaching, gripped by neoliberal policies which undermine the right to education for all. The reading of this paper offers various historical clues to understand this process.