Browsing by Author "Preiss Contreras, David Daniel"

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    An Historical Causal-Chain Theory of Conceptions of Intelligence
    (2023) Sternberg, Robert J.; Preiss Contreras, David Daniel; Karami, Sareh
    Lurking behind every conception of intelligence—whether an implicit (folk) or explicit (expert-generated) conception—is an underlying theory of meaning that specifies the form the theory of intelligence does and, indeed, can take. These underlying theories of meaning become presuppositions for the conception’s form. The theories of meaning have different origins—for example, psycholinguistic, philosophical, and anthropological. This essay reviews the different underlying theories of meaning and proposes a new historical causal-chain theory of conceptions of intelligence. The underlying theories of meaning affect the flexibility and modifiability of laypersons’ (implicit) and experts’ (explicit) conceptions of intelligence. As a result, these historical causal chains have profound but largely invisible effects on societies.
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    An Introduction to Creativity and the Wandering Mind
    (Academic Press, 2020) Preiss Contreras, David Daniel; Cosmelli, Diego; Kaufman, James C.
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    Argumentative writing and academic achievement: A longitudinal study
    (2013) Preiss Contreras, David Daniel; Castillo, Juan Carlos; Grigorenko, Elena L.; Manzi Astudillo, Jorge
    Capitalizing on the implementation of a writing assessment initiative implemented at a major Chilean university, we test how predictive writing is of subsequent academic achievement. First, using a multilevel analytic approach (n = 2597), the study shows that, after controlling for socio-demographic variables and the university admission tests, writing skills significantly predict first-year university grades. Second, using information about the performance of students during their first eight semesters in the university (n = 1616), a longitudinal hierarchical analysis showed that writing remains a significant predictor of university grades over time, also after controlling socio-demographic variables and university admissions tests. Moreover, language skills retain or improve their predictive role over time, whereas mathematics skills seem to decrease in their importance. Our results show that writing, and the cognitive skills involved in writing, play a critical role in advanced stages of academic training, consequently offering additional support for the consideration of this ability for university admission purposes.
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    Assessment of 21st century ICT skills in Chile: Test design and results from high school level students
    (2012) Claro, Magdalena; Preiss Contreras, David Daniel; San Martín, Ernesto; Jara, Ignacio; Hinostroza, J. Enrique; Valenzuela, Susana; Cortes, Flavio; Nussbaum Voehl, Miguel
    This paper describes a study that evaluates fifteen-year-old Chilean students Information and Communication Technology (ICT) skills. The paper presents an operational definition of ICT skills, an instrument measuring these skills as well as the students' results in the test. The definition of ICT skills used considers Chile's curricular framework, functional and cognitive skills. Specifically, ICT skills were defined as the capacity to solve problems of information, communication and knowledge in digital environments. A performance-based assessment was designed in a virtual environment to measure these skills. The analysis of the results showed that the majority of students were able to solve tasks related to the use of information as consumers, i.e., approximately three quarters of the students were able to search for information and half of them were also able to organize and manage digital information. Additionally, they show that very few students were able to succeed in tasks related to the use of information as producers, i.e., only one third of the students were able to develop their own ideas in a digital environment and less than one fifth were able to refine digital information and create a representation in a digital environment. Socioeconomic group, access, daily use and confidence in doing ICT-related activities were all positively associated with higher scores, showing the need to implement strategies to compensate this inequality, possibly by explicitly defining these aims in the national curriculum.
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    Assessment of argumentative writing and critical thinking in higher education: Educational correlates and gender differences
    (2013) Preiss Contreras, David Daniel; Castillo, Juan Carlos; Flotts de los Hoyos, María Paulina; San Martín, Ernesto
    The purpose of the study is to explore whether first-year university students' performance in an argumentative writing test is related to their performance in tests of inference analysis, argument analysis and syllogistic reasoning as well as their academic achievement, as measured by their previous high school grades and by two standardized tests required for university admission in Chile. 452 first-year undergraduates participated in the study. The results show that the information originated from the writing and thinking assessments supplements the information provided by the academic measures. The inference and argument analysis tests did not replicate the achievement gap between public, voucher and private schools commonly observed in Chile. The results showed that gender differences in writing are relatively independent of gender differences in thinking. The results support the adoption of writing and thinking measures as a part of initiatives targeting the identification of abilities not tested by conventional academic assessment.
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    Attentional and meta‐cognitive processes underlying mind wandering episodes during continuous naturalistic reading are associated with specific changes in eye behavior
    (2022) Oyarzo, Pablo; Preiss Contreras, David Daniel; Cosmelli, Diego
    Although eye movements during reading have been studied extensively, their variation due to attentional fluctuations such as spontaneous distractions is not well understood. Here we used a naturalistic reading task combined with an attentional sampling method to examine the effects of mind wandering—and the subsequent metacognitive awareness of its occurrence—on eye movements and pupillary dynamics. Our goal was to better understand the attentional and metacognitive processes involved in the initiation and termination of mind wandering episodes. Our results show that changes in eye behavior are consistent with underlying independent cognitive mechanisms working in tandem to sustain the attentional resources required for focused reading. In addition to changes in blink frequency, blink duration, and the number of saccades, variations in eye movements during unaware distractions point to a loss of the perceptual asymmetry that is usually observed in attentive, left-to-right reading. Also, before self-detected distractions, we observed a specific increase in pupillary diameter, indicating the likely presence of an anticipatory autonomic process that could contribute to becoming aware of the current attentional state. These findings stress the need for further research tackling the temporal structure of attentional dynamics during tasks that have a significant real-world impact.
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    Bocado
    Preiss Contreras, David Daniel
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    Chilean Lexicon
    (Routledge, 2021) Grau Cárdenas, Valeska Valentina; Calcagni García, María Elisa; Cortez, Mónica; Gómez, Daniela; Díaz, Gladys; Araya, Carolina; Preiss Contreras, David Daniel
    The International Classroom Lexicon Project aimed to document national lexicons of middle-school mathematics teachers from different countries including Australia, Chile, China, Czech Republic, Finland, France, Germany, Japan, Korea, and the United States. This chapter introduces the Chilean Lexicon, reflecting terms that are in use by such teachers in the country. The lexicon was built by teachers and educational researchers. The work evolved since its original creation in 2014 and included several phases of internal and external validation. The current version of the lexicon includes 74 terms – predominantly short phrases – arranged in five categories. This chapter complements Chapter 4: What We Can Name in the Classroom: A Chilean Lexicon of Middle-school Mathematics Teachers. It introduces the terms and descriptions translated to English to make them available for a wider audience.
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    Conclusion: Intelligence Does Not Inhere Within the Individual but Rather in Person x Task x Situation Interactions
    (Palgrave Macmillan Cham, 2022) Sternberg, Robert J.; Preiss Contreras, David Daniel
    Historically, intelligence has been viewed as a trait—a characteristic of a person that is at least partially heritable and that is relatively stable, relative to other persons, throughout a lifetime. Sternberg (2021a) has questioned this view and suggested instead that intelligence is not an inherent trait but rather a person x task x situation interaction.
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    Creativity and the Wandering Mind: Spontaneous and Controlled Cognition
    (Academic Press, 2020) Barnett, Paul Joseph; Kaufman, James C.; Barr, Nathaniel; Beaty, Roger; Seli, Paul; Zedelius, Claire M.; Schooler, Jonathan W.; Palmiero, Massimiliano; Villena González, Mario; Cosmelli, Diego; Prochazkova, Luisa; Hommel, Bernhard; Jay Lynn, Steven; Polizzi, Craig; Miskovic, Vladimir; Aksen, Damla; Woolley, Jacqueline D.; Bunce, Louise; Boerger, Elizabeth A.; Whitebread, David; O’Sullivan, Lisha; Russ, Sandra W.; Beghetto, Ronald A.; Schuh, Kathy L.; Dobson, Charles; Christoff, Kalina; Preiss, David D.; Colm Hogan, Patrick; Preiss Contreras, David Daniel; Cosmelli, Diego; Kaufman, James C.
    Creativity and the Wandering Mind: Spontaneous and Controlled Cognition summarizes research on the impact of mind wandering and cognitive control on creativity, including imagination, fantasy and play. Most coverage in this area has either focused on the negative consequences of mind wandering on focused problem solving or the positive effect of mindfulness, but not on the positive consequences of mind wandering. This volume bridges that gap. Research indicates that most people experience mind wandering during a large percentage of their waking time, and that it is a baseline default mode of brain function during the awake but resting state. This volume explores the different kinds of mind wandering and its positive impact on imagination, play, problem-solving, and creative production.
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    Creativity: New directions in research and assessment
    (2016) Preiss Contreras, David Daniel
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    Desarrollo de habilidades de observación en estudiantes de pedagogía: Resultados de una intervención piloto basada en el uso de la Videoteca de Buenas Prácticas Docentes
    (2013) Müller, Magdalena; Calcagni García, María Elisa; Grau Cárdenas, Valeska Valentina; Preiss Contreras, David Daniel; Volante, Paulo
    Uno de los aspectos claves de la formación inicial de profesores es la participación de los estudiantes en experiencias pedagógicas en contextos reales. Estas experiencias suelen ser limitadas y parcialmente mediadas por los profesores de los programas de formación. El presente artículo se enmarca en el desarrollo de una videoteca docente, cuyo uso en la formación inicial pretende aumentar la exposición mediada de los estudiantes a prácticas reales. En este contexto, se presenta el diseño, implementación y evaluación de un modelo pedagógico basado en evidencias internacionales sobre video formación. Específicamente, se buscó desarrollar en los estudiantes la capacidad de observación y razonamiento basado en conocimientos. Se aplicó un protocolo de observación de video, y se condujo un análisis de contenido. Los resultados muestran avances de los participantes en su capacidad de focalización en el triángulo estudiantes-profesor-contenido, y en la modalidad de observación, pasando de descripciones generales a específicas, e interpretaciones.
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    Desarrollo de habilidades de observación en la formación de liderazgo escolar a través de videos de clases
    (2014) Müller, Magdalena; Volante, Paulo; Grau Cárdenas, Valeska Valentina; Preiss Contreras, David Daniel
    El estudio evalúa la efectividad en Chile de una intervención en el desarrollo de habilidades de observación de sala de clases en el marco de un programa de formación en liderazgo educacional con énfasis en prácticas de influencia instruccional. Se aplicó una estrategia de video formación a través de un formato semi-presencial con exposición simultánea y masiva a videos y prácticas de observación de clases. Se analizaron 171 registros de observación aplicados como pre y post-test en un lapso de 5 meses. Se analizó el foco con que observaban, operacionalizado en la noción de triángulo instruccional. Este permite apreciar cuán centrada o distribuida está la atención del observador en el desempeño del docente, la actividad del estudiante o el contenido curricular. Se realizaron pruebas de comparación de medias, utilizando la prueba t de Student para muestras relacionadas. También se analizaron las modalidades de observación, detectando énfasis descriptivos, interpretativos o evaluativos. Se evidencian cambios significativos en el patrón y modalidad de observación, lo que permite afirmar que las estrategias de video formación son efectivas para desarrollar habilidades de liderazgo instruccional.
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    Design of a college-level test of written communication: Theoretical and methodological challenges
    (Psychology Press, 2012) Manzi Astudillo, Jorge; Flotts de los Hoyos, María Paulina; Preiss Contreras, David Daniel
    In contrast to our knowledge on the acquisition and early development of writing skills, our scienti€c understanding of the development of writing at the college level is relatively less advanced. In effect, a large part of the most in¥uential empirical research on writing has focused on the development of basic writing and composition skills (e.g., Berninger et al., 2002; Olson, 2002). Still, interest in college-level writing is not new. One of the €rst models of writing was based on protocol analysis of college-level writers, who were treated as novices in contrast to expert professionals (Hayes & Flower, 1980, 1986). Recent models of writing development have an increased curiosity for the development of writing beyond the acquisition of basic and composition skills (Kellogg, 2008) and researchers have shown that relevant individual differences in text generation can be detected in mature writers (Torrance, Thomas, & Robinson, 1999).
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    Discurso y pensamiento en el aula matemática Chilena
    (2011) Preiss Contreras, David Daniel; Larraín, Antonia; Valenzuela, Susana
    Este estudio tuvo por objetivo explorar la naturaleza de los procesos de pensamiento matemático presentes en el discurso de profesoras y profesores que enseñan en el segundo ciclo de educación básica de escuelas públicas en Chile. Se codificaron 77 videos de clases de profesores participantes en el Sistema de Evaluación Nacional Docente del Gobierno de Chile, en base a una rúbrica que distinguía 4 formas de pensamiento matemático: resolución mecánica de problemas, resolución razonada de problemas, presentación mecánica de la información y presentación razonada de la información. Se realizaron análisis descriptivos y análisis multivariados de varianza. Los resultados evidencian que el pensamiento matemático docente está focalizado en la presentación mecánica de información y la resolución mecánica de problemas. Los profesores que enseñan en 5° y 6° grado dedican significativamente menos tiempo a resolución de problemas que los profesores que enseñan en 7° y 8° grado. Los resultados son coherentes con evidencia proveniente de otros estudios que muestran la adherencia de los profesores chilenos a una pedagogía intuitiva externalista, centrada en la práctica repetida de procedimientos.
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    Educational Assessment and Educational Achievement in South America
    (2013) Preiss Contreras, David Daniel; Daniel Manzi, J.
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    Evaluating school and parent reports of the national student achievement testing system (SIMCE) in Chile: Access, comprehension, and use
    (2009) Taut, Sandy; Cortés, Flavio; Sebastian, Christian; Preiss Contreras, David Daniel
    This evaluation examined school and parent reports of the national student achievement testing system (SIMCE) in Chile regarding three dimensions: access, comprehension, and use. We conducted phone surveys with a representative sample of directors (N = 375), teachers (N = 1145) and parents (N = 625), and we collected more in-depth data through interviews and focus groups in 16 of these schools. The results indicate that access to the reports is not an obstacle to use for school actors, but it is for parents. While summative ratings of the reports in terms of their clarity and utility were generally very positive, the actual recall and interpretation of even basic information (assessed through case scenarios) was incorrect for a majority of teachers and parents, and reported uses of the information were both intended and unintended in nature. We also found some statistically significant differences regarding comprehension and use among subgroups of our sample. Our findings are especially relevant given the expectations attached to the use of the reports for school improvement on the one hand, and parents’ behavior as critical consumers of education on the other hand.
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    Human Intelligence in the Time of the Anthropocene
    (Palgrave Macmillan Cham, 2022) Preiss Contreras, David Daniel
    The following paper discusses the status of intelligence research in the Anthropocene. First, I discuss how the transformations we have experienced signal the need to more deeply consider the role of context in our thinking of intelligence. Next, I discuss the demographic and cultural changes that transformed the niche of human intelligence after the Industrial Revolution. Then, I comment on how, in the origin of intelligence research, the invention of the theory of general intelligence was marked by a lack of consideration of the role of context, notwithstanding that the British founders of the field were working in the midst of the great transformation provoked by the Industrial Revolution. Finally, I conclude by discussing how intelligence research should be conducted to address the challenges of the Anthropocene.
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    Intelligence in Context: The Cultural and Historical Foundations of Human Intelligence
    (Palgrave Macmillan Cham, 2022) Berry, John W.; Chiu, Chi-yue; Chan, Hiu-sze; Lee, Sau-lai; Tong, Jennifer Yuk-Yue; Kaufman, Alan S.; Choi, Dowon; Kapoor, Hansika; Kaufman, James C.; Gigerenzer, Gerd; Yang, Shih-ying; Chang, Kimberly Y. H.; Huang, Shin-yi; Fontaine, Johnny R. J.; Poortinga, Ype H.; Yee Ng, Kok; Ang, Soon; Rockstuhl, Tomas; Tan, Mei; Grigorenko, Elena L.; Furnham, Adrián; Hambrick, David Z.; Bian, Lin; Suzuki, Lisa; Caso, Taymy Josefa; Yucel, Aysegul; Ceci, Stephen J.; Williams, Wendy M.; Preiss, David D.; Sternberg, Robert J.; Sternberg, Robert J.; Preiss Contreras, David Daniel
    This book reflects on the various ways in which intelligence can manifest itself in the wide range of diverse contexts in which people live. Intelligence is often viewed as being tantamount to a score or set of scores on a decontextualized standardized intelligence test. But intelligence always acts within a sociocultural context. Indeed, early theorists defined intelligence in terms of adaptation to the environment in which one lives. The tradition of decontextualization is old, dating back to the very beginning of the 20th century with the development of the Binet-Simon Intelligence Scales. This tradition is not only old, however, but obsolete. Because people live in different sociocultural as well as physical environments, intelligence can take somewhat different forms in different places and even at different times. The chapters in this edited volume show that intelligence viewed in the abstract is a somewhat vacuous concept - it needs to be contextualized in terms of people’s physical and sociocultural surroundings.