Without cross-party consensus, Spanish students will never bridge the gap that separates them from the best performers EL PAÍS 4 ABR 2014
Time and again, the PISA report has warned that the educational level of Spanish students is far from what it should be. If earlier testing yielded mediocre results in mathematics, science and reading proficiency, the latest evaluation shows that results are even worse when it comes to practical skills.
Faced with questions that measure one’s ability to deal with everyday things such as programming an air conditioner or purchasing a combined public transit ticket, Spanish 15-year-olds scored 23 points below the average for OECD countries and 30 points below France, Italy and Germany. This is a dramatic situation about which the relevant officials do not seem fully aware.
Too much time has been lost —for too many years— on sterile ideological fights regarding the role of religion at school or the values it should teach, instead of seeking the necessary consensus to produce the changes that education in this country really needs. No reform has been able to redress the situation, and it remains to be seen whether the latest one will bring about any substantial changes.
What is needed is a “radical change in teaching methodology,” said the state secretary of education, to move beyond “old-fashioned” models based solely on memorizing content. What the PISA report suggests is that students must be given the necessary skills to apply the knowledge that they gain; the important thing is not how much you know, but what you are able to do with what you know, and being capable of learning what you still do not know.
But with a dispirited, decimated teaching community that has few options for career reinvention, it will be difficult to overcome the inertia that has led to the current results. Education once required – and still does – the kind of cross-party consensus that will pave the way for a reliable diagnosis of our system’s shortcomings and required changes.
In the first place, we urgently need much more of an educational focus on developing personal abilities and creative skills. Secondly, we need measures to reinforce the teachers’ work through programs aimed at improving their own teaching abilities and helping student stragglers meet class goals. Without extraordinary measures, it will be difficult to bridge the gap separating us from the best performers.
http://elpais.com/elpais/2014/04/03/inenglish/1396542037_823168.html
Spanish students lagging behind in problem solving, PISA report shows
Low scores do not reflect 15-year-olds’ theoretical skills in math, reading and science
Spanish 15-year-old students come out 23 points below average among developed economies in ordinary problem-solving skills, according to the latest Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) report, a triennial study conducted by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).
The performance by the 2,709 Spanish students who participated in the program – which evaluated 85,000 youngsters from 44 countries – shows that they are less well prepared to tackle the problems of everyday life than their scores in math, reading and science would suggest.
Their problem-solving skills were 20 points below those expected based on their theoretical knowledge. In other words, they are unable to use what they learned.
“The world economy does not focus on what one knows, but on what one can do with what one knows,” noted the OECD’s education chief, Andreas Schleicher, who traveled to Spain to present the test results.
“What’s needed is a radical change in the teaching methodology,” added Montserrat Gomendio, state secretary for education, during the presentation of the report. Gomendio said current methods were “old-fashioned” and based only on memorizing content. Responsibility for this change, she said, falls mostly on the shoulders of teachers.
The PISA report shows that 28 percent of Spanish 15-year-olds failed to reach a minimum baseline level of proficiency in problem solving, compared with a 21-percent OECD average. Spain obtained a mean score of 477 points (500 is the OECD average), ranking between 27th and 31st out of 44. The list leaders are Singapore and South Korea with 562 and 561 points, respectively.
The children of very educated parents perform worse than expected, the study finds
Spain is dragged back by several factors. First there is the fact that the difference between problem solving by kids from low and high socioeconomic backgrounds is not nearly as marked as in other countries: 42.7 points compared with an average of 68.8. In other words, the children of highly educated parents perform worse than expected, bringing the average down. State secretary Gomendio said the “rigidity” of the education system establishes “an equity which is taken to mean that everyone must be uniformly mediocre.”
The high rate of students who repeat a grade (33.2 percent compared with the OECD average of 17 percent) also brings the scores down. Without them, Spanish students would obtain a score of 512 points, in line with the OECD average.
The PISA report notes that Spanish students seem unfamiliar with computer use, based on their digital reading scores. Yet 96.6 percent of Spanish teenagers have a computer at home, and 75.3 percent use computers or tablets in their houses, five points above the OECD average.
Spanish students lagging behind in problem solving, PISA report shows
Low scores do not reflect 15-year-olds’ theoretical skills in math, reading and science
Spanish 15-year-old students come out 23 points below average among developed economies in ordinary problem-solving skills, according to the latest Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) report, a triennial study conducted by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).
The performance by the 2,709 Spanish students who participated in the program – which evaluated 85,000 youngsters from 44 countries – shows that they are less well prepared to tackle the problems of everyday life than their scores in math, reading and science would suggest.
Their problem-solving skills were 20 points below those expected based on their theoretical knowledge. In other words, they are unable to use what they learned.
“The world economy does not focus on what one knows, but on what one can do with what one knows,” noted the OECD’s education chief, Andreas Schleicher, who traveled to Spain to present the test results.
“What’s needed is a radical change in the teaching methodology,” added Montserrat Gomendio, state secretary for education, during the presentation of the report. Gomendio said current methods were “old-fashioned” and based only on memorizing content. Responsibility for this change, she said, falls mostly on the shoulders of teachers.
The PISA report shows that 28 percent of Spanish 15-year-olds failed to reach a minimum baseline level of proficiency in problem solving, compared with a 21-percent OECD average. Spain obtained a mean score of 477 points (500 is the OECD average), ranking between 27th and 31st out of 44. The list leaders are Singapore and South Korea with 562 and 561 points, respectively.
The children of very educated parents perform worse than expected, the study finds
Spain is dragged back by several factors. First there is the fact that the difference between problem solving by kids from low and high socioeconomic backgrounds is not nearly as marked as in other countries: 42.7 points compared with an average of 68.8. In other words, the children of highly educated parents perform worse than expected, bringing the average down. State secretary Gomendio said the “rigidity” of the education system establishes “an equity which is taken to mean that everyone must be uniformly mediocre.”
The high rate of students who repeat a grade (33.2 percent compared with the OECD average of 17 percent) also brings the scores down. Without them, Spanish students would obtain a score of 512 points, in line with the OECD average.
The PISA report notes that Spanish students seem unfamiliar with computer use, based on their digital reading scores. Yet 96.6 percent of Spanish teenagers have a computer at home, and 75.3 percent use computers or tablets in their houses, five points above the OECD average.
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