Percepción de alumnado y profesorado de educación primaria sobre el aprendizaje basado en competencias

Abstract

Today, the education system is subject to a process of constant change, involving the incorporation of new learning approaches as well as innovative methodological approaches. One of these approaches relates to competency-based teaching, learning and assessment processes, which are a topic of considerable debate among the educational community at the international level (i.e., Europena Commission, 2012; Edwards & López, 2008). Considering the relevance and validity of this learning framework within the educational context, reliable and universal indicators and assessment tools that enable teaching, learning and evaluation processes to be assessed from the different perspectives are extremely valuable (i.e., Méndez-Giménez, Sierra-Arizmendiarrieta, & Mañana-Rodríguez, 2013; Miñano & Castejón, 2011). Given this scenario, the aims of this doctoral dissertation were to design and validate three assessment tools, and their analysis, to explore how Primary School teachers and students perceive the competency-based learning framework. The research phases were: (I) ‘Design and validation process of the assessment tools’; and (II) ‘Perception of Primary School students and teachers about the competency-based learning’. In the first, the studies were: (I) Design and validation of the ‘Questionnaire on Perceived Competency-based Learning for Primary School students (#ICOMpri1)’ (Appendix 3); (II) Design and validation of the ‘Questionnaire of Perception of Elementary Education Teachers about Student Competency-based Learning (#ICOMpri2)’ (Appendix 4); and (III) Design and validation of the ‘Questionnaire on Perception of Primary School teachers on the Inclusion of Key Competences (#ICOMpri3)’ (Appendix 5). The design process and validation of this questionnaire followed the indications of Carretero-Dios and Pérez (2005). The first, ‘Initial creation of instrument’, involved the discussion of the need and innovation of the scale to be constructed. The second, ‘Content validation by experts’, addressed three different validation rounds were carried out with experts. In the peer-review validation method, a total number of 35 experts participated. The third, ‘Validation of comprehension by participants’ (173 students and 45 teachers of Primary School), examined the statistical analysis of the items, after evaluating. The fourth, ‘Validity of construct’ (523 students and 255 teachers), examinated the internal structure of the instrument. Last, the ‘Reliability analysis and external evidence’, was analyzed for each assessment tool. In the second phase, the studies were: (IV) Perception of Primary School and teachers about the competency-based learning; and (V) Perception of Primary School teachers on the inclusion of key competences. In this phase, was examinated the perception of 8.513 students and 1.010 teachers, from third to sixth year of Primary School, on competency-based learning. Overall, both teachers and students reported high scores of perceptions. The prediction models according to students and teachers, showed that one of the possible recommendations that could facilitate the inclusion and the improvement of the competency-based learning process, is attributed to the design of innovative pedagogical models that facilitate the development of the competences that predict perceived learning. The educational system is involved in a process of continuous change. Therefore, to collect information directly from students and teachers on some influential variables of this complex process, will be decisive for feedback consistently its dynamics.