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.
http://elpais.com/elpais/2014/04/01/inenglish/1396364218_557397.html
READ BOTH TEXTS AND ANSWER THE FOLLOWING QUESTION:
According to the previous articles, what are the main reasons for the bad results? What needs to be done?
THEN POST YOUR OPINION
READ BOTH TEXTS AND ANSWER THE FOLLOWING QUESTION:
According to the previous articles, what are the main reasons for the bad results? What needs to be done?
THEN POST YOUR OPINION
The main reasons for the bad results are firstly the old-fashioned models of schools based only in memorizing concepts, then the students in practical life don't know how to act, they only know the theory. Secondly, the problem that a lot of students have their own computer at home and they spend a lot of time with it. What has to be done is changing and modernizing the old methodology and control more the use of computers at home.
ResponderEliminarAlfonso Hernandez and Ismael Derhali
The main reasons for the bad results are that spanish student's study with old-fashioned methods and based on learning by hard the content but then they are unable to use that they learned. The article says that the responsibility falls on the shoulders of mentors. An other reason for the bad results is that the rate of students who repeat a grade deliver the scores down.
ResponderEliminarIt's necessary to change the teaching methodology, they must be able to apply what they learned on the real life. Also, we need to focus on promote personal abilities.
Este comentario ha sido eliminado por el autor.
ResponderEliminarNowadays, academic results are disastrous because teaching today is timeless. In addition, students only learn things in theory, but they don't know how to put that knowledge into practice. But, this is all the fault of the teachers and we would have to focus more on promoting the personal abilities of each student.Moreover, a lot of students have computers, iPad's, and other new tecnologies in house, which they spend a lot of time with them. Tha'ts way, results ,in this case PISA, are disappointing.
ResponderEliminarNowadays, more and more people who study in order to be well preapared for the future, but the old-fashioned education methods only makes the results deplorable due to the fact that they teach way too many theory and not enough practice, and when the students want to apply what they have learnt in real life, they don't know how to do it. That is why it's necessary that the education methods change. Another problem in the students' life is the bad use of computers and iPads, we should learn how to make a good use of them so we can progress with our education and learn more each and every day.
ResponderEliminarEste comentario ha sido eliminado por el autor.
ResponderEliminarPISA tests have checked that the educational level of spanish students is worse than they expected. This results are produced because of the methodology of studying which is based on memorizing, and when students try to put on practise what they have studied, they can't. However, teachers have the fault of this situation because they should find other methods of teaching.
ResponderEliminarThe other problem which isn't the fault of teachers, is that the students use for many hours their computers or another new machines instead of spending his time on study.
The main reasons for the bad results are that they have wasted too much time teaching religion and values at school and that students have their own computer at home and spend hours using it. They need to change the teaching methodology based on memorize the contents. The change has to base on able to apply these contents that students learn. Another way to improve the results is that teachers have to better their work.
ResponderEliminarThe main reasons for the bad results in our country are the bad model that the students use to study. They are based on the memorization method, so, when they have to apply the practice, they don't know how to beguin. It is said that the teachers have all the blame. In addition, most students have new tochnologies in their homes, which are used very badly.
ResponderEliminarThe main reason for the bad results in the PISA report is, according to Gomendio, the secretary for education in Spain, we have “old-fashioned” methods which are based on memorizing content. In my opinion, education should be changed because students need other methods which help them learn better and help us take content, as only memorizing it doesn’t work.
ResponderEliminarEste comentario ha sido eliminado por el autor.
ResponderEliminarThe teachers’ method of memorizing content, is one of the main reasons for the bad results; pupils, once they've learnt all the content they don't have any idea to use that information on the real-life. This fact can be changed if teachers create new methods to make students learn well. In addition, nowadays we study and work with computers and tablets, everybody have one computer at least and this fact makes pupils disconnect and surf the internet during the afternoon rather than make the most of the time studying. This point is very difficult to result but the use of computers at home must be more controlled.
ResponderEliminarThe PISA report shows that the spanish education has several issues because of their results. Also, this report say that the responsibility of this bad results are old-fashioned methods which not only don't put on process all the knowledge that the students have but also are based on memorizing thinks.
ResponderEliminarIn order to improve this results, our government need to change the memorizing method and they should implant more creative activites. Moreover, they need to improve the level of teachers through programs of enhancing.
I believe that our study-method it's not effective anymore, due to it consists in memorize a serie of notes and, one time we explain them on the exam, we completely forget these notes. Many things we learn in class are useless in our real life. Moreover, how the PISA report shows, we aren't able to apply, in quotidian life, the theorical knowledge we have. I mean, I think that our educative system should be changed in this country.
ResponderEliminarEste comentario ha sido eliminado por el autor.
ResponderEliminarI completely agree with the results shown by the PISA report. Education in Spain is a reality which is getting worse and worse, and what's even more worrying is that we're not doing anything in order to deal with this situation and renew the teaching methodology, which is where the problem lies. The point is that we, pupils, receive a lot of theoretical knowledge at school and then we don't really know how to apply it to our real and practical lives and to the problems and adversities we have to face. So, maybe we can pass loads of exams and get good marks, but this does not mean that we've assimilated, understood, that knowledge. The main reason for this situation and for the bad results that Spain obtained in the PISA report is the fact that pupils learn by heart things, they memorize sentences and statements; however, they actually don't comprehend them, which obviously supposes a failure in the education system. Consequently, we must put and end to the old-fashioned teaching methods and we must start making students use what they've been taught in class, as that's the only way to learn things right and, why not, the better way to produce own knowledge, which is the most useful and most valuable one.
ResponderEliminarI think that PISA results shows the real situation of education in Spain. Nowadays the education consists in memorizing contains and students are bored so they tned to distract themself with another think. Another problem is that the lessons usally are so bored for the students because the teachers talks and talks, doing a monologue. We can solve this problems modifying the model in order to the students won't have to memorize the lesson and when they have done the exam forget everything they had learnt.
ResponderEliminarThe main reasons for the bad results are that the sons of highly educated parents have bad results than expected, a lot of students repeat a grade, and the students aren’t familiarity with computers however a lot of students have a computer on their house. The solution is the change and modernizes the education's model and the students using more the computers.
ResponderEliminarThe main reasson for get these bad results are principally the education. It needs a immediately modernization, we can't be limited to memorize all the contains. The studens have to put on practise their teoric knowledge. If we aplicate it, we will increase our level and our average.
ResponderEliminarI believe that our way of study is not the best because we use old-fashioned methods how is the method of memorize. We must learn using the reasoning ability but we don't do this, morevoer the teachers have to explain the leasons with a more dynamic sistem. In addition, the class ratio must be more little because the theacher could be help all the students.
ResponderEliminarThe reason of the bad results are due to the old-fashionable metodology implanted in spain . The students only memorize content and after they forget it and they can't practise their knowledge. The solution is change this metodology very quickly because the futur of our teenagers will be very sad compared with the rest of Europe.
ResponderEliminarThe PISA results just show us the actual situation of Spanish education. Most of Spanish students just memorized the theory and then vomit it in the exam just to get a good mark. But, that's a huge problem because most of them haven't understood anything and they actually don't know how to apply this knowledge in their daily lives. For this reasons, the Spanish government should change these old-fashioned methods in order to improve the results and motivate the students.
ResponderEliminarThe main reason of the poor grades, is without a doubt the prehistoric educational system that we have in Spain, it seems incredible that in the 21st century we continue to use an outdated methodology such as memorizing, which shows how behind we are from the rest of the world, not to mention the excessive use of paper which denotes little or non regard at all for the environment.
ResponderEliminarWhat needs to be done is to encourage the use of recycled paper, and even limit it, also we should apply the "e-learning", system that most of the world uses, such as distance learning, virtual classrooms... Furthermore we should promote a more appropriate use of the computer as a tool rather than an entertaiment center, involve more the families in the education of their children, completely remove the current educational system and start from zero with a system based on the assimilation of practical, useful and interesting content, focused on the student's professional future, depending on what he chooses to study and not wanting to give them a minimum content of each subject that they probably are never going to use in real life. The results of the PISA tests are nothing more than a mirror showing the sad reality that we live in Spain, nothing new under the sun.
The PISA results show the bad situation of Spanish education. I think that in the Spanish education system there is too much theory in the subjects and students don’t learn or don’t know how to apply what they know to life situations, they just memorise things so that they can pass the exams and get good marks.
ResponderEliminarNowadays the model of education in Spain is very bad because they used a wrong method to teach the students. They use techniques such as memorize all the theory... Consequently the results are very bad . I think that teachers should be recicle and change the education system. Moreover, most of students have new tecnologies which distract them,
ResponderEliminarI think the education system fails because the students have too many subjects, lose too much hours in insignificant things, and moreover we have to learn three languages, thing that majority other countries don’t do it. Finally, I think it's unfair to blame the teachers for the bad teaching system because they do a great job, they help a lot to students and they simply follow the rules which are established by the education.
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