Research on Emotion and Learning: Contributions from Latin America


Book Description

Latin America has increased its share of world scientific publications by nearly twofold during the last two decades (approximately from 2 to 4%). Despite this positive trend, the scholarly impact of scientific research produced in the region - measured in terms of citation rate - remains low. Two interrelated factors that contribute to this situation is that most research groups tend to work in isolation or in local sporadic collaboration, and results are often published in journals that are not indexed in major citation databases (e.g., SCOPUS, or Web of Science). Ultimately, part of Latin American high-quality research seems to remain hidden from the rest of the world. Over the last decades, an important number of Latin American scientists have developed fruitful research agendas on questions on learning and emotion, focusing on basic and/or translational research with humans and other animal models, and implementing diverse methodologies. Notwithstanding the important contributions of these research programs, Latin American research on emotion and learning has followed the overall trend of other research fields throughout the region; namely, remaining partially hidden from the large scientific community of the world. This Research Topic aimed to engage researchers from Latin America to share their empirical and conceptual work on learning and emotion. Ultimately, this effort was expected to strengthen and integrate our regional community of experts, enhance global networking, and establish new challenges and developments for future investigation.




Latin American Women and Research Contributions to the IT Field


Book Description

Although the effort to involve women in engineering has risen in recent years with the creation of new initiatives and the promotion of inclusion in technical disciplines, the active participation of women in engineering professions is continuously lower than expected. While the need for engineers appears to be constantly increasing, women still do not fill most of this role and have a long way to go to even reach an equal split in the field. This gender gap has a significant impact how women in the STEM fields are perceived as well as their experiences in their education and careers. When it comes to Latin American women in IT, their contribution to science can go unnoticed, their participation levels in these fields are very low, and they often occupy lower-level positions than their male counterparts. These issues need to be discussed, and the experiences of women who work in the field must be shared. Latin American Women and Research Contributions to the IT Field highlights the important role of Latin American women in IT by collecting and disseminating their frontier-research contributions in order to provide more visibility and inspire greater participation of Latin American women within the major field of computer science. With chapters contributed by female authors from eight Latin American and Caribbean countries, the book provides a deep analysis of these women’s trajectory paths to high quality theoretical and applied relevant research in computer science and IT. While highlighting areas such as inclusivity and STEM education, along with advancements and achievements in topics that include nonverbal interaction in virtual reality, fuzzy logic applications in education, and ant colony optimization, this book is ideal for professionals, academics, students, and researchers working in the fields of information technologies and computer science as well as those interested in gender and women’s studies.




Research Handbook on the Sociology of Emotion


Book Description

The Research Handbook on the Sociology of Emotion investigates the role of emotions in key institutions understood as the frames and fabrics of society. It takes a critical look at society-framing institutions such as the state, the military, the market, and international organizations.




The Spark of Learning


Book Description

Informed by psychology and neuroscience, Cavanagh argues that in order to capture students' attention, harness their working memory, bolster their long-term retention, and enhance their motivation, educators should consider the emotional impact of their teaching style and course design.




The Emotions


Book Description

Emotions are a loaded topic. From love and hate to grief, fear and envy, emotions are increasingly understood as driving forces in social life. The Emotions: A Cultural Reader applies a cross-cultural perspective on emotions. It examines the fact that emotions are socially and culturally constructed, while highlighting problems of comparison and translation of local terms and emotional experiences. Are emotions cultural or universal? To what extent are there culturally distinct emotions? The Emotions closes the traditional Western gap where emotions are separated from rationality and thought: the heart versus mind debate. By presenting both classic essays and new cutting-edge chapters from anthropology, sociology and psychology with important contributions from philosophy and neuroscience, the volume connects a rich range of cross-cultural studies to form a thriving interdisciplinary debate on emotions.




Validity of Educational Assessments in Chile and Latin America


Book Description

This edited volume presents a systematic analysis of conceptual, methodological and applied aspects related to the validation of educational tests used in Latin American countries. Inspired by international standards on educational measurement and evaluation, this book illustrates efforts that have been made in several countries to validate different types of educational assessments, including student learning assessments, measurements of non-cognitive aspects in students, teacher evaluations, and tests for certification and selection. It gathers the experience of validity studies from the main international assessments in Latin America (PISA, TIMSS, ERCE, and ICCS). Additionally, it shows the challenges that must be taken into account when evaluations are used to compare countries, groups or trends of achievement over time. The book builds on the premise that measurements in the educational field should not be used if there are no studies that support the validity of the interpretation of their scores, or the use made of such tests. It shows that, despite the recognition given to validity, relatively few educational measurement assessments have accumulated enough evidence to support their interpretation and use. In doing so, this volume increases awareness about the relevance of validity, especially when assessments are key component of educational policies.




Child and Adolescent Development in Latin America


Book Description

Explore the multiple dimensions of child and adolescent development in Latin America, and get acquainted with the research from this region and how it relates to the international scientific literature. This special issue presents a collection of reviews developed by leading scholars in Latin America about the state of child and adolescent research in this region. Topics considered include: poverty and cognitive development, school readiness of preschool children, peer relations and socioemotional development, psychopathology and psychiatric diagnosis, reading comprehension and related interventions, and the development of creativity. This is the 152nd volume in this Jossey-Bass series New Directions for Child and Adolescent Development. Its mission is to provide scientific and scholarly presentations on cutting edge issues and concepts in this subject area. Each volume focuses on a specific new direction or research topic and is edited by experts from that field.




The Palgrave Biographical Encyclopedia of Psychology in Latin America


Book Description

This biographical encyclopedia will provide the first comprehensive reference work on leading scholars and professionals who have contributed to the development and institutionalization of psychology in Latin America. The figures biographed will include scholars who have made a significant theoretical contribution to the discipline, as well as, practitioners and those who have contributed to the institutionalization of psychology, through their work in scientific organisations, professional bodies and publications. All persons included are recognized authorities and either natives of, or long-term residents in the region. It will offer an invaluable reference point, in particular for scholars of the history of psychology, Latin American studies, the history of science, and global psychology; as well as for historians, psychologists and social scientists seeking international perspectives on the development of the discipline.







Educational Assessment in Latin America


Book Description

This collection presents educational assessment research from Latin America, adding to a relatively small but growing body of research considering educational assessment and evaluation issues in this large region. The predominance of Chile reflects its early highly centralized education system, and the fact that it adopted national testing before other Latin American countries. It was also an early participant in international assessment programmes. Other countries have followed the trend of implementing national testing, and to a lesser extent participating in international surveys. The complementary development of technical expertise in quantitative research methods has enabled extensive analysis of the large data sets generated by these testing and assessment programmes. Taken together, the evidence reported provides a means not only of reviewing educational quality issues in Latin America, but also of facilitating comparisons that allow the context specificity of equivalent research conducted in western developed countries to be considered. The chapters in this book were originally published as a special issue of Assessment in Education: Principles, Policy and Practice.