Papers by Alejandro Iborra
Parezja. Czasopismo Forum Młodych Pedagogów przy Komitecie Nauk Pedagogicznych PAN
Generally, public service interpreters and social workers experience symptoms of an anxious depre... more Generally, public service interpreters and social workers experience symptoms of an anxious depressive nature, due to their works. For this reason, we aimed to design three ad hoc emotional management intervention programs to evaluate their impact, combining quantitative and qualitative information. The study developed a quasi-experimental pre-test-post-test design, performing T-tests on related samples for each group. Three ad hoc intervention programs were developed for a group of public service interpreters, a group of telephone interpreters and a group of social workers. The study also included a control group that did not receive any intervention. The Bar-On ICE, the Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI) and the BCSQ-36 were used to evaluate the Emotional Intelligence factors, the Burnout syndrome and the Empathy processes. Most of the emotional intelligence and empathy factors showed statistically significant differences between the pre-test and the post-test, in favor of the l...
Revista General de Información y Documentación, 2010
Tras realizar algunas puntualizaciones generales sobre la practica evaluadora se caracteriza el c... more Tras realizar algunas puntualizaciones generales sobre la practica evaluadora se caracteriza el concepto de evaluacion para el aprendizaje colaborativo y se presentan tres fuentes de evaluacion para la practica colaborativa grupal: a) el grado de construccion de los contenidos o materiales elaborados por los grupos, en funcion de los objetivos de aprendizaje y el contexto educativo; b) el desarrollo del propio proceso colaborativo y su desempeno por parte de los grupos, y c) los resultados o productos de aprendizaje. Para cada uno de ellos, se disenan una serie de instrumentos de evaluacion. Ello nos ayudara a construir una vision mas completa y coherente del proceso global de construccion de aprendizajes grupales colaborativos.
Journal of Transformative Education
Most emotional intervention programs are based on remedial approaches designed to improve one’s e... more Most emotional intervention programs are based on remedial approaches designed to improve one’s emotional management. However, few programs have aimed at promoting developmental changes not to mention value creation processes regarding their coping with emotional experiences. Accordingly, we implement and evaluate an emotional intervention program based on the specific needs of the participants. Nineteen Secondary School teachers volunteered through 5 sessions of 4 hours each. After the intervention, a follow-up was carried out by means of a discussion group and a post-test, using the Bar-On ICE questionnaire. Most emotional intelligence factors increased significantly their scores in the post-test. It is discussed to what extent there is evidence of a transformational change in the participants attributed to the developmental value creation intervention.
Supplemental Material, Appendix_1 for Experiencing Transformative Learning in a Counseling Master... more Supplemental Material, Appendix_1 for Experiencing Transformative Learning in a Counseling Masters' Course: A Process-Oriented Case Study With a Focus on the Emotional Experience by Gloria Nogueiras, Alejandro Iborra, and Saskia E. Kunnen in Journal of Transformative Education
ABSTRACT We present a quantitative and qualitative pilot study aimed to study the emotional proce... more ABSTRACT We present a quantitative and qualitative pilot study aimed to study the emotional processes and individual trajectories of the participants in a methodological experiential challenging learning experience aimed to promote students´ autonomy. This experience was conducted in the subject of “Social Skills” for students of the degree of Psychopedagogy in the University of Alcalá (Madrid, Spain) during the second semester of academic year 2010/2011.The subject took place along thirty one sessions and was attended by around fifty students between twenty-three and fifty-three. At the beginning of the course, and as an optional activity, the students were asked to register what they were feeling throughout the sessions in order to facilitate their personal reflection. On the one hand they had to track, by means of scale weekly reports, the occurrence and intensity of thirteen different emotional states. On the other hand, they were invited to record, through weekly reports, the most significant events experienced during the sessions. By the end of the course we had gathered a total of ninety-five records from eleven students, nine women and two men. Although in a first moment we selected four cases to be analysed, as they were not homogeneous in the number or timing of registers we considered as more interesting to focus on one of the cases and make a preliminary analysis, as an approach to future and more systematized research projects. Our proposal to analyse the data collected in the kind of experience we are presenting would consist of a categorical content analysis of the narratives made with the program Atlas.ti (Iborra, 2007 b) and on analysis of variability, continuities, discontinuities and changes in trajectories (Kunnen et al., 2011). This work tries to contribute with some ideas to the reflection about the teaching and learning processes, emphasizing on the importance of students´ individual trajectories and suggesting some ways to measure and analyse them. We consider that this is particularly relevant in the case of people who will work as professionals in the field of education.
For a long time the conception of “career” has been the most widespread metaphor when referring t... more For a long time the conception of “career” has been the most widespread metaphor when referring to the trajectories experienced throughout our professional live (Skorikov & Vondracek, 2011) . However, the higher complexity in the domain of work is leading to the decrease of predictable and stable career paths (Law, Meijers & Wijers, 2002). The concept of occupational identity is becoming more relevant in order to refer to the agentic mechanism responsible for coping both with the changing and unpredictable environmental conditions and with the own personal demands (Côté & Levine, 2016). Although there are interesting examples of applying the dimensional identity status paradigm with working young adults, we defend that a functional model of identity probably describes better the self-regulatory activity needed to manage the demands arising from the current professional context (Serafini & Adams, 2002). In this regard, we present a model of “Career Identity and Self Management” based on the elaboration and validation of a questionnaire (IdeCaA) which measures how individuals self-manage their professional careers through relevant meaning-making processes.
La evaluación de los procesos de aprendizaje ha de entenderse como un proceso continuo y formativ... more La evaluación de los procesos de aprendizaje ha de entenderse como un proceso continuo y formativo (Black y William, 2009; Margalef, 2014) que ayude a los individuos a transitar hacia formas más complejas de pensamiento (Van Rossum y Hamer, 2010). Como docentes universitarios, una de nuestras propuestas de evaluación es un cuestionario online de carácter opcional y anónimo. Para cada pregunta se ofrecen varias respuestas, seguidas por un feedback donde se presenta una argumentación compleja sobre el grado de precisión de las mismas. El objetivo de este cuestionario formativo es que el estudiante revise activamente los conceptos trabajados en la asignatura. El cuestionario fue presentado a un grupo de 95 estudiantes del Máster Universitario en Formación del Profesorado y un grupo de 34 alumnos de 1º Curso del Grado de Magisterio en Educación Primaria. Dichos cuestionarios fueron valorados por los alumnos y posteriormente se realizó un análisis de contenido (Schreier, 2014). Se identificaron tres temas: 1) promover que los estudiantes reflexionen sin la presión de una calificación, 2) facilitar que el estudiante aprecie diferentes niveles de complejidad en el tipo de respuestas posibles, y 3) facilitar procesos de autonomía y responsabilidad con respecto al propio proceso de aprendizaje.
Journal of Transformative Education, 2018
This case study investigates the transformative learning process and outcomes of a female master’... more This case study investigates the transformative learning process and outcomes of a female master’s student in a semester-long counseling skills training course based on experiential learning. The data included the student’s longitudinal accounts (11 questionnaires on the emotions experienced in every session and three blog posts) and retrospective accounts (a final reflective written activity and an interview) of her experience in the course. Through a thematic holistic analysis, we identified (1) five phases in the student’s learning process, which illustrated her evolving meaning-making of the challenging demands and related changes in her emotional experience and (2) two learning outcomes, including the student’s insights into the meaning of learning and her increasing self-awareness. The findings are discussed with an emphasis on the value of tracking learners’ emotional experience to understand their transformative changes, the contribution of experiential approaches to trigger...
Frontiers in Psychology, 2017
This study adopts a dynamic systems approach to investigate how individuals successfully manage c... more This study adopts a dynamic systems approach to investigate how individuals successfully manage contextual complexity. To that end, we tracked individuals' emotional trajectories during a challenging training course, seeking qualitative changes-turning points-and we tested their relationship with the perceived complexity of the training. The research context was a 5-day higher education course based on process-oriented experiential learning, and the sample consisted of 17 students. The students used a five-point Likert scale to rate the intensity of 16 emotions and the complexity of the training on 8 measurement points. Monte Carlo permutation tests enabled to identify 30 turning points in the 272 emotional trajectories analyzed (17 students * 16 emotions each). 83% of the turning points indicated a change of pattern in the emotional trajectories that consisted of: (a) increasingly intense positive emotions or (b) decreasingly intense negative emotions. These turning points also coincided with particularly complex periods in the training as perceived by the participants (p = 0.003, and p = 0.001 respectively). The relationship between positively-trended turning points in the students' emotional trajectories and the complexity of the training may be interpreted as evidence of a successful management of the cognitive conflict arising from the clash between the students' prior ways of meaning-making and the challenging demands of the training. One of the strengths of this study is that it provides a relatively simple procedure for identifying turning points in developmental trajectories, which can be applied to various longitudinal experiences that are very common in educational and developmental contexts. Additionally, the findings contribute to sustaining that the assumption that complex contextual demands lead unfailingly to individuals' learning is incomplete. Instead, it is how individuals manage complexity which may or may not lead to learning. Finally, this study can also be considered a first step in research on the developmental potential of process-oriented experiential learning training.
Behavioral Development Bulletin, 2017
This study investigates how the transition toward self-direction is experienced and facilitated i... more This study investigates how the transition toward self-direction is experienced and facilitated in 2 semester-long courses in teacher education degree programs and the differences in such a transition for freshman and master's students. The thematic analysis of the written self-assessments of 8 illustrative examples enabled the detection of (a) students' initial upset in the face of demands for internal authority; (b) the support of the teacher and peers in managing that upset; and (c) the students' shift toward more complex conceptions of learning and teaching, including evidence of increasing selfdirection. These findings shed light on the potential of intentionally designed learning contexts for promoting students' epistemological development. The similarities found between freshman and master's students' experiences when managing the demands of internal authority emphasize the underutilization of the most extended teaching practices in higher education.
Innovative Practices for Higher Education Assessment and Measurement
As higher education teachers, the authors are committed to supporting students in their epistemol... more As higher education teachers, the authors are committed to supporting students in their epistemological development, specifically in their transition towards self-direction. In this chapter, they share their experience of using self-assessment in a Teacher Training Degree course as a way to both enhance self-direction and assess its development. A thematic analysis of the self-assessments of a sample of 30 students is carried out, and four themes are identified: 1) the degree of authorship, 2) the degree of elaboration, 3) “taking notice of” subtle levels of analysis, and 4) the identification of temporal milestones throughout the course. These themes enable a different pattern of mental complexity to be identified, a complexity which is understood as evidence of students' different degrees of self-direction. The findings are discussed in the light of developmental constructivist theories. In addition, some implications for education regarding the current debates on self-assessm...
Our interest focuses on the study of the trajectories and change processes throughout the time in... more Our interest focuses on the study of the trajectories and change processes throughout the time in learning environments. As the emphasis of our project is on the phenomenon of learning processes, we collected data from four different methodological experiential challenging learning experiences aimed to promote the autonomy of adolescents and emerging adults university students. More specifically our aims are to detect different patterns in the emotional and learning trajectories, to analyze the qualitative narratives expressed by the participants and to determine the intra-individual variability in developmental trajectories. We consider this project as a methodological challenge in two levels. At one level, and as researchers with a psychological background, we wish to implement a kind of inquiry loyal to the new approaches in psychology (Smith and Sparkes 2005, Valsiner 2009, Kunnen et al.2011) which pay attention to the complexity and multiplicity of the individual and avoid the ...
Journal of Transformative Education, 2018
This case study investigates the transformative learning process and outcomes of a female master&... more This case study investigates the transformative learning process and outcomes of a female master's student in a semester-long counseling skills training course based on experiential learning. The data included the student's longitudinal accounts (11 questionnaires on the emotions experienced in every session and three blog posts) and retrospective accounts (a final reflective written activity and an interview) of her experience in the course. Through a thematic holistic analysis, we identified (1) five phases in the student's learning process, which illustrated her evolving meaning-making of the challenging demands and related changes in her emotional experience and (2) two learning outcomes, including the student's insights into the meaning of learning and her increasing self-awareness. The findings are discussed with an emphasis on the value of tracking learners' emotional experience to understand their transformative changes, the contribution of experiential a...
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Papers by Alejandro Iborra