Javier Barquín Ruiz

La competencia científica y su evaluación. Análisis de las pruebas estandarizadas de PISA

In this paper, we present the results of research conducted under the Project I + D (SEJ2007-66 967): The Educational Evaluation of Second Order Learning, Learning how to Learn, International Project Analysis and Testing of Alternative Strategies funded by the Ministry of Education and Science and led by Prof. Dr. D. Angel I. Perez Gomez (PAI Group HUM-311: Educational Innovation and Evaluation in Andalusia), University of Malaga (Andalusia, Spain). We will focus on international assessment PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment) in the specific area of science, understood as scientific expertise. The PISA program, led by the OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development), is based on analyzing the performance of students from standardized tests that are conducted every three years and are aimed at international assessment of competencies achieved by students of fifteen years. In a first level of discussion, we conducted an analysis of the PISA tests released for the area of science in the years 2000-2006, on the six matrix scientific capabilities (play, implementation, reflection, transfer, heuristic and argumentation), concluding These tests require scientific capabilities primarily low complexity (implementation and reflection), with little presence in the mere repetition in them. In a second level of discussion, we have conducted an assessment of the distance between the global concept of competition proposed in the report for the OECD DeSeCo and what really seems to assess the PISA program in light of the results of our analysis. According to our research, PISA looks atomizing the notion of competence, thereby moving away from the original holistic approach, to assess capabilities only, to be assessed individually, not actually seem to show the level of acquiring skills in school by students.

Comprehensiveness and Diversity in Secondary Compulsory Education in Andalusia: An Unresolved Challenge.

Abstract This article outlines the contradictions and challenges of introducing comprehensive, compulsory education in Andalusia for students up to the age of 16. Following a documenting of the developments, it is argued that while the intention was for a significant, planned reform, it is better characterised as one that is, at best, an improvisation. The article discusses the continuing difficulties that may be attributed to a number of policies of the Conservative government of the day, which allowed the development of two systems of education that were not grounded in concepts of equity and social justice to evolve. The work of John Elliott has been acknowledged as an important influence upon the inquiry that was undertaken and the subsequent analysis of its results. Thus, not only are the results of an action-orientated study reported here, but also there is an extensive set of guiding principles that could enable the reform to be truly actualised.