In the pluralistic, ever-changing, and complex world we inhabit, rural schools, through the development of foundational pedagogical approaches, have become a setting of great interest due to their capacity for innovation and improvement. In this context, the present study aims to contribute to the understanding of good practices within a particular context-rural education. Focusing on four schools within the Eskola Txikiak network (a concept similar to rural schools) in the Basque Country, this research seeks to analyse the core pedagogical activity of Eskola Txikiak, highlighting the benefits it brings to both students and teachers. Data collection was completed through 420 hours of observation sessions, 8 focus groups, and an analysis of internal documentation. After categorizing and coding the information, the results obtained reveal several of the key factors underlying sociocultural learning processes that arise in educational workshops. Specifically, the results obtained in this study indicate that active participation in the learning process, as well as the creative distribution of school space, experimentation, and the availability of a wide range of material and personal resources with which children can interact, promote child-centered, creative, personalized, and high-quality learning.
Introduction: The relevance of mathematical problem solving is reflected in the curricular documents of Primary Education. However, in order for this to be carried out, it is necessary to train teachers and know their study plans. Therefore, this work describes the presence of problem solving and its teaching in the syllabuses of the compulsory and elective subjects in the area of Didactics of Mathematics belonging to the university degrees of Teacher in Primary Education in Spain. Method: We have carried out a content analysis and cluster analysis of 151 syllabuses from 39 Spanish public universities. Results: The results show an emphasis on problem-solving competence over elements of specialized knowledge. Likewise, regarding knowledge about problem characterization appear more frequently, while regarding pedagogical problem solving knowledge, topics related to the problem posing are more frequent. Conclusions: We conclude that each university has interpreted the teaching and learning of problem solving from its own understanding, so the training among Spanish teachers is very heterogeneous. In addition, we highlight the need to include aspects such as the consideration of the solver or non-cognitive factors to improve teacher training on problem solving.
Introduction. The contemporary debate on transhumanism has led to interpretations that bring it closer to education as a means of human enhancement. This article challenges that equivalence, arguing that education and transhumanism follow radically different logics and pursue fundamentally distinct ends. Method. Using a philosophical and pedagogical approach, the article critically examines the premises of transhumanism from the perspectives of anthropology, ethics, and educational theory. It contrasts the transhumanist ideal of functional enhancement of capacities with the teleological tradition of human formation. Results. The article argues that while transhumanism aims at the technical optimization of the individual-especially regarding cognitive, physical, or sensory abilities-education is oriented toward the ethical maturation of the person through human relationships, culture, and personal effort. Not every enhancement of capacity constitutes educational improvement: true improvement occurs only when autonomy is ethically oriented toward meaningful ends, acknowledging human vulnerability and interdependence. The article also rejects the biologicist reduction of ethics to evolutionary utility and affirms a view of the human being as a moral agent teleologically directed. Discussion. In the face of a cultural hegemony of efficiency and technological fascination, the article defends the irreplaceable role of education as a humanizing process. Pedagogy must not be subordinated to the logic of performance or to intellectual trends, but must safeguard essential formative values such as effort, prudence, and the acceptance of limits. Within this framework, the article offers a critique of the technocratic illusion of unlimited perfectibility, emphasizing that the ultimate goal of education is not to program functional subjects, but to form persons capable of acting with meaning and responsibility in a shared world.
This essay examines university autonomy as a dynamic and multifaceted concept influenced by political, economic and social factors. It proposes an analytical model that approaches the phenomenon from three levels: macro (political-systemic), meso (institutional) and micro (individual). Unlike traditional approaches that focus on general or static definitions, this model takes a relational and dynamic approach, examining the interactions between the state, the market, university organisations, and individual academic actors. The model's primary contribution is the identification of specific analytical variables for each level, facilitating the empirical comparison of autonomy dynamics in different contexts. The macro-level analysis focuses on the relationship between universities, the state and the market, highlighting how reforms based on New Public Management have promoted a model of regulated autonomy that strains the balance between institutional independence and accountability. At the meso level, it examines the changes in university governance marked by the shift from the collegiate model to managerial structures, which has created tensions in the distribution of internal power. Finally, at the micro level, it analyses how external pressures affect the individual autonomy of academics, particularly in their research, teaching and professional activities. The essay emphasises that university autonomy in Latin America has evolved historically, from its consolidation with the Cordoba Reform in 1918 to the contemporary challenges posed by globalisation, neoliberal policies and the commodification of higher education. It also highlights the need for comprehensive analytical approaches that recognise the internal tensions and dynamics of universities in the current context. The concluding reflections emphasise the importance of defending university autonomy as an essential principle for the development of democratic and just societies, stressing that it must be understood as a relational construct, subject to constant negotiation between universities and their environments.
Developments in teaching innovation have recently seen a great push towards formats that can increase and improve students' active learning. A wide array of teaching formats based on this concept has been implemented across various university disciplines, from natural to social sciences. Most empirical analyses have so far focused on comparing the effects of traditional and active teaching formats on students' academic performance. This has improved scientific knowledge about the benefits and drawbacks of several teaching formats. Nevertheless, contrasting traditional lecturing formats with activity-based approaches to active learning risks yielding simplistic and unhelpful dichotomies between "traditional" and "active" instruction. In this article, we follow a different strategy. By using non-parametric tests, we compare two different teaching formats based on two different active learning strategies, such as flipped classroom and visual thinking. Students' performances in the two groups, composed of undergraduate students enrolled in a dual degree in International Relations and Global Communication, are compared in terms of academic results, that is their grades, and a set of soft skills, such as learning perception, self-efficacy, and teamwork. The study detects a relevant effect in terms of grades, with students through the flipped format outperforming students taught through the visual thinking format. On the other hand, the study detects only one relevant effect in the soft skill of learning perception, with students in the flipped format scoring higher than students in the visual thinking format. While this does not necessarily indicate that FC formats are more effective than VT formats, this difference in students' grades and learning perception can signal that different teaching formats can be differently but equally useful depending on the teaching goal or need.
Differential Item Functioning (DIF) analyses are essential to support the quality and fairness of an assessment, as they identify items that may be biased. Various methods have been developed to perform these analyses, and their effectiveness has been compared by manipulating different variables, including the number of examinees. Typically, studies focus on groups with some thousands of participants; however large-scale assessments are administered to a significantly larger number of individuals. This study explored the effectiveness of four traditional methods for analyzing DIF in samples similar in size to the groups of examinees taking the Entrance exams (EXANI by its acronym in Spanish) in a single administration in Mexico and that could be applied in other entrance tests administered nationwide or complete administrations of International Large-Scale Assessments (ILSA). Simulations were conducted, in which samples of sizes comparable to those in the EXANI's administrations were generated, and the difficulty parameter values of 10% or 20% of the items of one of their content areas were manipulated to exhibit moderate and high Uniform DIF. The effectiveness of the Mantel-Haenszel, Logistic regression, Lord and Raju methods was verified by comparing the percentage of items correctly detected with their degree of DIF (manipulated items) as well as the percentage of false detections in non-DIF items. The Mantel-Haenszel, Lord and Raju methods were the most effective in detecting uniform DIF in the simulated samples, confirming their potential implementation in large-scale assessments with dichotomous items for samples of up to 200,000 examinees.
Recent technological advances are creating new educational challenges. The rise of Artificial Intelligence is enabling the implementation of new tools useful for education. In the case of university guidance services, applications such as Copilot or ChatGPT, based on multimodal language models, stand out. The aim of this study is to analyse the quality and reliability of the answers provided by Copilot and ChatGPT to questions posed by students in informal networks. The method was based on a qualitative and analytical validation approach to assess the accuracy of the answers. An observation tool consisting of 48 items, divided into four thematic blocks: access, management, difficulty of studies and employability, was applied in Copilot and ChatGPT-4 for fifteen public universities. A sufficient degree of fit of 100% was determined for all thematic blocks, except for management. Two items were found to have an insufficient degree of fit. Both were implemented in the new multimodal language model ChatGPT-4o and an improvement in the degree of fit was detected. Subsequently, the answers provided by ChatGPT-4o and the information found on the websites were described, highlighting the confusion regarding the credit price information on the websites and the difficulty in finding the maximum limit of credits to be taken while studying at the same time. It is concluded that Copilot and ChatGPT have potential as university guidance services. The effectiveness of these AI assistants will depend on the quality and accessibility of information on university websites. It is essential that universities organise and update the information on their websites to improve the effectiveness of AI-based applications.
Adolescence is a stage of growth where mental health problems can have considerable effects. Some personal conditions, such as sex, or some educational measures such as repetition, can be relevant to promote the appearance of externalizing socio-emotional problems. The aim of this study is to analyze the impact of repeating a course on externalizing problems (anger and aggression) and personal resources (self-esteem, social competence and awareness of problems) according to the sex of adolescents. The sample included 230 males and 215 females between 12 and 17 years old. The test "Evaluation System for Children and Adolescents" (SENA) was used and a cross-sectional comparative design ex post facto. Descriptive analyses and comparisons between means were performed using 2x5 factorial ANOVA. The results indicate that sex and repetition of a course influence the emotional and social adjustment of adolescents. In anger, the group of women and repeaters show higher scores than men and non-repeaters. In aggression, repeaters have higher scores, with no significant effect of sex or its interaction with repetition. In conclusion, this study points out the impact of repetition on externalized socio-emotional problems according to sex, highlighting the relevance of personal resources as protective factors during adolescence.
A part of the historiographical production has tended to assume a resolved and homogeneous development of primary education in the city of Buenos Aires, then the federal capital of Argentina, by the late 19th and early 20th centuries. This presumption has relegated to the background an analysis of the process of universalizing primary education which, according to the sources consulted, proved to be problematic. In this regard, the article aims to contribute to a reconstruction of that process, hypothesizing that it was not uniform due, in part, to the city's rapid urban expansion fueled by the continuous and massive arrival of immigrants, as well as the prevalence of child labor, which prevented school-aged boys and girls from fully or partially complying with mandatory education. To this end, the study explores the notion of compulsory schooling in Argentina during this period, both as a principle and as a mechanism for expanding the primary education subsystem. A mixed-methods approach is employed to complement statistical reconstruction with discourses from school authorities at various levels of responsibility.
The expansion of compulsory education has been promoted internationally as a strategy to improve access to and equity in education. However, its effects vary depending on the context and do not always meet initial expectations. This study conducts a systematic review of the existing literature with the aim of analyzing its main implications worldwide. To this end, 83 documents were reviewed from the databases Dialnet, ERIC, APA-PsycInfo, and Scopus, selected for addressing the expansion of compulsory education as one of their main thematic focuses, rather than merely as the context of their research. The methodology combined a descriptive quantitative analysis and a qualitative categorization of the content into four dimensions: educational, socio-political, economic, and personal, ensuring data triangulation. The results show that the expansion of compulsory education has mixed effects. At the educational level, expansion improves access and training, but inequalities in quality, coverage, and equity persist. At the social and political level, it does not guarantee effective inclusion or greater mobility. At the economic level, it can contribute to growth by increasing human capital, although doubts arise about its financial sustainability. At the personal level, educational benefits are identified for some students, while others experience school fatigue or demotivation. It is concluded that the expansion of compulsory education alone does not ensure improvements in equity or quality. Its effectiveness depends on complementary policies that guarantee resources, inclusive pedagogical strategies, and support for students. To be an effective tool for equity, it must focus on the quality of teaching and the diversity of student trajectories, avoiding being merely a formal extension of schooling.
The Spanish region of Madrid has carried out the authorization of pre-primary and primary schools to teach the first two years of Compulsory Secondary Education. This measure has been justified by a vague need related to childcare, prevention of youth gangs, addictions and school drop-out and failure, and reconciling family and work. For the curent school year, 52 pre-primary and primary schools have signed up for this proposal (although in the end only 49 have had sufficient demand). Through interviews with the principals of schools that will implement it next year, together with the assigned secondary schools, schools that are already running these courses, schools that have not been authorized by the administration to do so and representatives of principals of pre-primary and primary schools and secondary schools, we have tried to deepen the educational needs to which this measure may be addressed. Results show that the vague pedagogical debate is articulated in two types of tensions: the understanding of the 12-14 years stage as part of childhood or adolescence, and consequently the retention purpose of primary schools and the accompanying purpose of secondary schools, and the generalist school grammar of the former and the specialized ones of the latter. These tensions raise the question of whether we are facing a process of primarisation of Compulsory Secondary Education, and the effects this may have on its comprehensive nature.
This article presents a qualitative systematic review of the scientific literature to analyze the role of compulsory education in fostering a critical, equitable, and community-based reading culture. The study adopts an interpretive and comparative approach, structured through thematic analysis of 261 articles published between 2000 and 2025 in databases such as ERIC, Scopus, Web of Science, and Dialnet. The findings reveal that reading culture is a complex, dynamic, and context-dependent phenomenon that cannot be reduced to a mere technical skill. Within this framework, the school emerges as an irreplaceable agent in ensuring universal access to diverse, meaningful, and empowering reading practices-especially when it embraces critical and context-aware pedagogies. The article also examines the complementary role of other social actors-families, libraries, and digital environments-and highlights cultural and institutional contrasts across territories. It concludes that promoting an inclusive reading culture requires a collective and systemic commitment that recognizes reading as a cultural right, a social practice, and a tool for democratic transformation.
The emergence of educational innovation in Spain as a strategy for educational reform has generated an ambiguous response: while some support it, others, especially teachers, families and institutions, have shown mistrust. Criticism stems from academic results in standardised tests, high dropout rates, discipline problems in classrooms and the loss of some of the traditional functions of educational institutions. These reactions have prompted the formation of groups that question the direction of education under the standards imposed by current regulations and innovative reform. One of the key issues in the debate is compulsory schooling up to certain ages, a central component of progressive legislation. The aim of this paper is to analyse the discourses of institutionalised groups of teachers, families and students in Spain that question the current model of compulsory schooling. To do so, we will examine their documents and speeches published on their official platforms. The result of this analysis allows us to identify points in common between these groups, as well as to point out their main arguments and avenues of debate regarding compulsory schooling. The paper concludes by providing a detailed profile of these organisations and their claims, and by contributing to an understanding of the criticisms and proposals surrounding the reform implemented in the light of educational innovation and the specific field of compulsory schooling in Spain.
This study investigates whether narrative texts can be accurately and stably scored over time and whether effective formative feedback can subsequently be provided for these texts through human-AI collaboration. To this end, two models were employed: the default version of ChatGPT and the Text Assessment Tool (TAT), a GPT model specifically trained through a six-step process for this research purpose. 114 narrative texts were scored three times according to criteria in a rubric by both the specially trained and default models. The agreement levels of the scores given by TAT and default ChatGPT with the actual scores, as well as the stability of these scores over time, were examined. The results indicated that, in contrast to the performance of default ChatGPT, TAT's scores demonstrated high levels of agreement with the actual scores and maintained stability over time across all rubric categories, consistently surpassing the threshold and frequently indicating high reliability. Additionally, it was observed that the majority of the feedback generated by TAT met the criteria for effective feedback. Additionally, the feedback provided by TAT for the texts exceeded an 83% success rate in meeting effective feedback criteria across all categories. The statistical evidence presented in this study underscores that large language models, when specifically trained, can perform very well in scoring texts using a rubric and providing feedback. This is particularly promising for achieving fairer education, especially in large classes and situations where evaluators are overburdened.
Compulsory education is unquestionably an achievement of advanced societies. In Spain, debates around extending it have not had the required pedagogical depth. Far from there being disagreement between political forces, everything would suggest a certain reluctance to extend it before the age of six and after the age of sixteen, the ages established in the legislation in force since 1990. Moreover, in line with neighbouring countries, which have started to implement this extension, no rigorous process of review has been undertaken in Spain due to political polarisation, which has made it impossible to find the appropriate strategy for this matter in terms of pacts. This article is theoretical in nature. It first reviews some ethical and legal considerations concerning the state's responsibility regarding compulsory schooling, then goes on to propose moving the debate towards the pedagogical terrain, for which some functions in this regard are suggested and some final proposals are made.
This study analyses the use of learning and motivation strategies. High School students (ESO) as a function of academic performance in mathematics, with the main objective of identifying the strategies that actually seem to contribute to or explain the different types of performance. 292 ESO students were assessed on the use of learning and motivational strategies and academic performance in mathematics. The results showed that, although all students, regardless of their performance, use the strategies, only some of them appear to be weighted towards the medium and high achievers, and even fewer strategies seem to explain them. Of all the learning strategies, only some in the 'resource control' group seem to explain significantly and positively both levels of performance. When mathematical performance is average, peer help seems to be key. Effort and, marginally, the cognitive strategy of critical thinking contribute to high performance. The data also reveal differences in the case of motivational strategies. Thus, although self-efficacy seems to contribute positively in both cases, it does so only significantly when performance is high and marginally when it is average. Another notable difference is the finding of a significant negative contribution in the case of self-handicapping motivational strategies only when performance is high. It seems that variables that may explain higher performance in isolation lose impact in a realistic situation in which the student uses several strategies and all are analysed together. The theoretical and practical implications of these results are discussed.
The proposal to extend compulsory schooling to the age of 18, as outlined in the report by the State School Council, opens up a crucial debate on the meaning of basic education and, in particular, on teacher education. This article analyzes the challenges that such an extension would entail for both initial teacher education and professional development, taking the case of Catalonia as a reference. Based on a qualitative, interpretative methodology, the study triangulates documentary sources, interviews with key stakeholders, and a focus group with education professionals. The findings identify four key dimensions: (1) the need to strengthen ethical commitment as a core principle in access to and training for the teaching profession; (2) the importance of modeling this commitment within university teaching; (3) the centrality of the practicum as a strategic space for constructing teacher identity; and (4) the urgency of consolidating training teams with diverse and socially engaged profiles. These dimensions suggest that a potential extension of compulsory education would require profound transformations in teacher education models, beyond regulatory or curricular reforms. The conclusions point to an opportunity to rethink the architecture of teacher education from a more inclusive and contextualized perspective, aligned with current educational challenges. Experiences such as the MIF Program, the institute-school model, and the Sensei residency program offer valuable reference points for moving in this direction. Finally, the article highlights the need for teaching policies that ensure equitable access to the profession, promote ethically grounded training connected to the realities of educational institutions, and recognize teachers as key agents in supporting increasingly diverse and continuous educational trajectories.
In December 2019 OECD decided not to publish Spanish results on Reading for PISA 2018. Apparently, they had found implausible student-response behaviour on a certain number of students. Enough students as to consider not acceptable the results for international comparisons. Months later, they finally published the Reading results, adding a technical note proposing some possible explanations. In this paper, we show that was the test structure what caused the problem. Specifically, the presence at the beginning of the test of the "reading fluency items" and its effect on the final results. We use the time response of those items and the successive performance of the students in the remaining of the test to find which students had an odd behaviour. Later, using a loglinear multilevel model, we found what characterized those students. The application period, the student motivation and the immigration status are relevant variables. The private or public condition of the school, or the gender of the students are not a relevant to predict a student odd behaviour. Finally, the comparison with the results without the reading fluency items, show the repercussion of these for certain CCAA.
The particularities of the territory and the distribution of the population have historically led to the need to use school transport to guarantee access to education for the entire population. This generates inequalities and can have repercussions on the academic performance of the pupils transported. The article analyses the impact of travel time between home and school on academic engagement. The sample consisted of 470 students in Compulsory Secondary Education and Baccalaureate. The participants were students from 1st ESO = 18.9%, 2nd ESO = 21.9%, 3rd ESO = 15.3%, 4th ESO = 13.4%, 1st BACH = 14.0%, and 2nd BACH = 16.4%, and were between 13 and 21 years old (M = 15.63, SD = 4.25). Data were collected using the Engagement Questionnaire (MOCSE-EEQ), and the SPSS 25.00 statistical package was used. Cronbach's alpha was performed to evaluate the questionnaire for this study, in addition to Pearson's linear correlation analysis to test the relationship between the variables studied, one-factor ANOVA to determine the differences between the types of engagement and travel time, and simple linear regression analysis to predict engagement. The results showed that there is a relationship between the time it takes students to get to school and engagement. Furthermore, it can be affirmed that the longer the journey time, the lower the academic engagement of students. In fact, it is evident that engagement can be predicted from travel time. In conclusion, the present study can serve as a basis to support teachers in developing and promoting measures to avoid the lack of academic engagement resulting from the time students lose in getting to school.
The purpose of this article is to analyze the evolution of public policies on educational and vocational guidance and their effects over the last 50 years in Spain, and it is divided into three parts. In the first, we review the fertile reformist period from the transition to democracy until the end of the 20th century (precursor importance of the LGE, 1970; Royal Decree 334/1985; LODE, 1985 and LOGSE, 1990). The second addresses the main and risks (LOCE, 2002; LOMCE, 2013) and advances (LOE, 2006; LOMLOE, 2020) for inclusive educational and vocational guidance in 21st century Spain. A regulatory review is carried out according to the following criteria: Nature (soft/hard policy); Type of document/ regulation; Issuing institution; Range of the regulation; and Scope of application. In the third part, the cross-cutting and specific challenges of guidance today are raised. Are cross-cutting challenges: sufficient and adequate investment in educational and vocational guidance; professional development of guidance counselors; and greater territorial cooperation; Specific challenges: the effective provision of vocational guidance from a renewed perspective, and a more inclusive model of psycho-pedagogical assessment and support for student learning and participation.
