Resultados de investigación

This work explores the relationships between principals’ motivations for entering the principalship and the difficulties they experienced during their first year as principals. Survey data were collected from a sample of 2042 Spanish principals. They answered a questionnaire assessing intrinsic and extrinsic motivations, difficulties experienced when doing instructional, informational, and administrative tasks, and other personal and contextual characteristics. The scales developed to measure motivations and difficulties displayed adequate psychometric properties. The results showed the preponderance of intrinsic motivations. Administrative mundane tasks were perceived as the most difficult ones. We also found that non-administrative instructional tasks were more difficult for those principals who were more extrinsically motivated. Some gender differences were observed in motivations and difficulties. Women placed lower value on extrinsic motivations than men. Furthermore, while the difficulty of administrative tasks in their first year as principal was placed higher by women than men, those tasks that are more relationship-oriented (i.e. informative and instructional tasks) were rated as more difficult by men than women. Although internal incentives and administrative overload characterize most of the public Spanish principals, some findings pointed to the possibility of other profiles of principals that should be investigated in further studies. Implications for the design of principalship training are also discussed

It has been suggested that physical education (PE) teachers hold strong anti-fat attitudes and thatthese can have an impact on the health of their students. In this study, we compare the attitudesand stereotypes towards obesity of PE teachers with those of their colleagues who teachmathematics. In addition, we evaluated the association between the teachers’ anti-fat biases andthe level of physical activity (PA) of their students. The sample consisted of 81 PE teachers and 75mathematics teachers. The adolescent sample consisted of 1792 secondary school students. Theassessment of attitudes and stereotypes was conducted with the Implicit Association Test and theAnti-Fat Attitudes questionnaire. The PA level of the adolescents was determined by a self-administered instrument. PE and mathematics teachers showed similar biases, except for theautomatic obesity–laziness association, which was stronger for PE teachers than for mathematicsteachers. These distinctive implicit stereotypes of PE teachers were also significant predictors ofthe lack of PA in adolescents. We recommend the use of interventions aimed at reducing non-traditional forms of prejudice in teachers

This research highlights the development of electro-active eco-friendly lubricants by dispersing polarizable clay nanoparticles in castor oil. These smart fluids exhibit controllable viscosity and friction properties under applied electric fields, enabling reversible tuning of lubrication performance. Experiments showed enhanced friction control, improved lubricant retention, and promising dielectric strength, pointing to a sustainable approach for actively managing friction and load-bearing in mechanical systems through electric field modulation.