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Today’s world demands new ways of dealing with problems and different ways of preparing for them. Some studies argue that these new demands also require new skills. Critical thinking (CT) involves a set of skills that are entirely relevant to today’s adaptive needs. In this study, we explore the extent to which CT serves to both account for and improve academic performance. To do this, we measured the CT skills of a number of undergraduate students, along with their university admission grades and average course grades. We successfully established the structural validity of the general construct of CT, along with a strong relationship between CT measurements at two different timepoints (at the beginning and end of studying a critical thinking subject area) and the admission grade and average grade variables. These data lead us to reflect on using CT level as a suitable assessment of academic performance. We also consider the limits of our findings and their implications.

Background: The school curriculum is increasingly aligned with real-world contexts and transversal skills. Simultaneously, conceptions of intelligence now emphasize contextual, motivational, and emotional dimensions. These shifts raise questions about the relevance of classical intelligence tests in predicting academic achievement, particularly during adolescence, a time of major curricular and developmental changes. Methods: Two independent samples of students, sixth–ninth grades (n = 1708) and tenth–twelfth grades (n = 3007), were randomly selected from public schools across Portugal. Cognitive abilities were measured by “Bateria de Aptidões Cognitivas” (BAC-AB), with nine subtests combining three contents (spatial, verbal, numerical) and three cognitive processes (comprehension, reasoning, problem solving). School achievement considers students’ grades in Portuguese and Mathematics. Results: Subtest scores were higher in advanced grades, particularly in early adolescence. The correlations between cognitive subtests and academic achievement suggested that alignment between test item content and curriculum subjects is more influential than cognitive processes. Subtest scores explained a larger proportion of variance in academic achievement in basic education than in secondary education. Conclusions: Curricular changes may reduce reliance on classical cognitive abilities for academic achievement, though correlations remain significant. More integrated cognitive skills are emphasized as the curriculum aims to prepare students for understanding complexity, adapting to societal changes, and applying knowledge to respond effectively to challenges in and outside of school.

Managing multiple roles is considered a major challenge that mature working student parents face when they embrace the educational pursuit of enrolling in higher education. Limited research exists on mature working student parents that identify the strategies that concur for a successful journey through their educational paths. The aim of this study is to explore the experiences of mature working student parents balancing studies, work, and family. We conducted 11 semi-structured interviews with mature students enrolled in first- and second-cycle degrees in a higher education institution in Portugal. Thematic analysis was used, and findings demonstrated that working student parents develop diverse strategies to combine work, family, and studies and these strategies are shaped by the needs they have in each role and interconnect with the activation of social support. Recommendations for researchers and institutions to support the educational pursuits of mature working student parents to best suit their needs are discussed.

Transition to higher education is increasingly becoming a common stage in young adulthood, which highlights the importance of studying what could contribute for a better adaptation to higher education. The aim of this study was to explore the relationship between academic expectations, self-efficacy, and adaptation to higher education during the first two years of college (i.e., the first two years of a higher education degree). Portuguese college students participated in a longitudinal data collection resorting to the Academic Expectations Questionnaire (T1 and T3), the Self-Efficacy in Higher Education Scale (T2 and T3), and the Questionnaire for Higher Education Adaptation (T2 and T3). Structural equation modeling analysis was conducted to test a model correlating academic expectations, self-efficacy, and adaptation, as well as a mediation model where a full mediation of self-efficacy was observed between the relationship between academic expectations and higher education expectations. This study delivers a unique longitudinal view on the experience of the first two years of college, showing a significant role of expectations and self-efficacy in order to achieve a better adaptation process. Results are useful for institutions to adapt the way they present themselves and manage students’ expectations.

The increasing flexibility and rapid, profound changes in the labor market require employability skills from graduates, dem1anding greater attention from higher education institutions to training opportunities that foster the development of these skills among their students. Using a sample of 373 first-year engineering students, this study analyzed, through regression analysis, the impact of sociodemographic (gender, age), academic (work, program choice, average grade), and psychological (life satisfaction, perseverance of effort, consistency of interests) variables on students’ confidence in achieving their professional career project after completing their degree. The results indicate that women and younger students show lower levels of confidence in achieving their future vocational projects, as do students with lower academic performance and those with less consistency in their interests. These findings suggest the need for specialized support services for students, starting from the first year, in career development provided by higher education institutions.

Background Choosing a major involves the interplay of personal characteristics and contextual variables, two key elements of academic selection. The relationships between major choice (MC) and academic expectations (AEs) can highlight the processes evolved in the transition to higher education. We examined, across genders, the relationships between factors influencing MC and AEs among students pursuing social sciences (SocSci) and STEM careers. Methods With a sample of first-year Spanish ( n  = 750) and Portuguese ( n  = 594) university students ( Mdn  = 18 years), we tested a model with two factors of a scale of determinants of career choice, named Perceived Personal Characteristics Influences (PPCIs) and Perceived Mediating Agent Influences (PMAIs), as predictors of five from an AEs questionnaire. The model invariance testing across gender and fields of study followed the examination of its factorial structure counterpart invariance across countries, fields of study, and gender. Results Factor means tests revealed negligible differences between women and men regarding PPCIs and PMAIs in STEM, while in SoSci, women displayed higher PPCIs than men. In STEM, they had lower expectations for training benefits to employability. In addition, women expressed higher expectations for political participation and citizenship than men, with a discrepancy that was higher in SoSci than in STEM. The regression model showed similar slopes between genders in both fields of study, with PPCIs being better predictors of AEs than PMAIs in SoSci, but not in STEM. PPCIs predicted better Training for Employment in STEM than in SoSci, and also Political Engagement and Citizenship in SoSci than in STEM. Conclusions Results showed that women value personal characteristics more than men in SoSci, and their STEM choice is driven, possibly, by individual characteristics that foster greater self-determination and self-concept, non-differentiating them from men. Gender indifferentiation on PMAIs contradicts the belief that women attribute more relevance to others in their vocational choices. According to gender stereotypes, women have greater political and civic engagement, especially in SoSci, while men have higher AEs for job training. Contrary to previous results, no gender differences in career choices and educational expectations were found among STEM students. Furthermore, in STEM, PPCIs were weaker predictors of political engagement and citizenship, possibly due to the stereotypical portrayal of professional activities in this field.

The transition from university to the labour market is a crucial period for graduates. It is typically characterized by a high degree of uncertainty. Self-efficacy may be a determinant in the process, but the research so far has only considered students or graduates shortly after graduation, strongly compromising its conclusions on the findings. This study aims at exploring the variables which explain the different levels of self-efficacy of graduates in transition to the labour market. A total of 694 graduates who completed their degrees at two Portuguese Higher Education Institutions in the last five years were subjected to a questionnaire. Regression and multivariate analyses based on decision trees (Recursive Partitioning for Classification) showed that (1) older graduates have higher self-efficacy in adapting to work; (2) male graduates have higher self-efficacy in emotional regulation when looking for a job; and (3) graduates with higher grades demonstrated more self-efficacy in job-seeking behaviours. The results also revealed that the graduates’ scientific area, the parents’ level of education and undergoing internships during higher education are also related to self-efficacy. Overall, the study contributed to a better understanding of the construction process of self-efficacy beliefs and its importance in the job-seeking process and in the adaptation to work.

This research was part of the project “Voice assistants and artificial intelligence in Moodle: a path to a smart university” -SmartLearnUni-. Project number: PID2020-117111RB-I00, funded by Agencia Estatal de Investigación. Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación y Universidades. Gobierno de España.

Employing reference genes to normalize the data generated with quantitative PCR (qPCR) can increase the accuracy and reliability of this method. Previous results have shown that no single housekeeping gene can be universally applied to all experiments. Thus, the identification of a suitable reference gene represents a critical step of any qPCR analysis. Setaria viridis has recently been proposed as a model system for the study of Panicoid grasses, a crop family of major agronomic importance. Therefore, this paper aims to identify suitable S. viridis reference genes that can enhance the analysis of gene expression in this novel model plant. The first aim of this study was the identification of a suitable RNA extraction method that could retrieve a high quality and yield of RNA. After this, two distinct algorithms were used to assess the gene expression of fifteen different candidate genes in eighteen different samples, which were divided into two major datasets, the developmental and the leaf gradient. The best-ranked pair of reference genes from the developmental dataset included genes that encoded a phosphoglucomutase and a folylpolyglutamate synthase; genes that encoded a cullin and the same phosphoglucomutase as above were the most stable genes in the leaf gradient dataset. Additionally, the expression pattern of two target genes, a SvAP3/PI MADS-box transcription factor and the carbon-fixation enzyme PEPC, were assessed to illustrate the reliability of the chosen reference genes. This study has shown that novel reference genes may perform better than traditional housekeeping genes, a phenomenon which has been previously reported. These results illustrate the importance of carefully validating reference gene candidates for each experimental set before employing them as universal standards. Additionally, the robustness of the expression of the target genes may increase the utility of S. viridis as a model for Panicoid grasses.

Academic expectations play a significant role in the quality of student adaptation and academic success. Previous research suggests that expectations are a multidimensional construct, making it crucial to test the measures used for this important characteristic. Because assessment of student adaptation to higher education comprises a multitude of personal and contextual variables, including expectations, shortened versions of assessment instruments are critical. In this article, confirmatory factor analysis was used to obtain a short version of the Academic Perceptions Questionnaire–Expectations (APQ-E). Participants were 3,017 first-year Portuguese college students. The results support the use of a shorter version of 24 items, distributed over six dimensions, with good reliability and validity.