Home Elements for a Diagnosis of the Spanish Educational System
2 - Academic performance (continued)

Precious Table of Contents Next



ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE IN NATURE SCIENCES

As in the case of Geography and History, administration of the Nature Science tests was limited exclusively to the territory of the ten Autonomous Regions managed by the Ministry of Education and Culture.

The study of Nature Sciences covered analysis of the capacities of the students in Biology, Geology, Physics and Chemistry. In Biology the contents concentrated on themes related to animals, the human body, the cell, ecology and ecosystems, and vegetables; in Geology, the tests covered contents on geomorphology, meteorology, minerals and rocks, soils and plate tectonics, and the universe; in Physics, they covered electricity, magnetism, energy, force, matter, movement, optics and sound; and in Chemistry, the chemical changes, the structure of matter and carbon chemistry. The capacities of the students were considered to ascertain, understand and interpret, apply and generalise these areas of knowledge.

Table 12 shows the average percentage of correct answers in the area of Nature Sciences and its relevant subareas, for students aged 14 and 16.



Table 12: Average percentage of correct answers by subareas in Nature Sciences
Subareas Average percentage of correct answers
Age 14 Age 16
Biology
Geology
Physics
Chemistry
43%
47%
36%
38%
52%
41%
35%
38%
TOTAL 41% 41%


The global results show that both students aged 14 and 16 were able to correctly solve 41% of the questions in the tests. Biology and Geology are the subjects in which the best results were obtained, while those in Physics and Chemistry were worse, not reaching 40% correct answers in either of the latter.

The resulting average (MEC Territory) after the tests administered to students aged 14 was 230.17 points, these lying between the anchorage points 200 and 250. This means that the average 14 year old student is able to perform the tasks related to level 200 and has not yet reached the skills at point 250. As to the students aged 16, the resulting average was 267.43, that is to say, somewhat more than 37 points above that for 14 years, thus lying between 250 and 300.

Table 13 shows the skills and knowledge in the Nature Science area for each one of the performance levels, as well as the percentages of students who above each level.



Table 13: Performance in Nature Sciences. Percentage of students level
Level Skills and knowledge in nature sciences On each level Exceed the level
The students are able to ... Age
14
Age
16
Age
14
Age
16
450
  • Have an advanced knowledge of land tectonics (folds and rifts)
  • Relate the plate tectonics to geological phenomena
  • Identify and analyze the energy transformations that take place in everyday machines and instruments
  • Extrapolate knowledge of the behaviour of dissolutions to new situations in which there has been a modification in the initial conditions
  • Relate the chemical changes that have taken place in a reaction with its speed to apply knowledge of the theory of collisions
  • Understand and interpret the existing relationship between the characteristics of the elements and the types of chemical links that may be formed using these
  • Infer characteristics of the dissolution of a compound in water
- - - -
400
  • Compare several explanations given to ecological problems and choose the most adequate one
  • Interpret topographic maps and be able to translate that information in real scale
  • Identify and analyze situations in everyday life in which work and energy exchanges take place
  • Effectively distinguish kinetic and potential energy and relate them to other physical concepts such as movement
  • Calculate the linear acceleration of a moving body
  • Use techniques to solve complex problems related to effort, mechanical energy, heat and power, being able to use the information obtained to draw graphs
  • Master the procedures related to mixtures and dilutions
- - - -
350
  • Know the changes in relief due to external and internal geological agents
  • Provide geological explanations of the features of rocks and identify their possible use in daily life
  • Know the origin, consolidation and structuring of the layers of the Earth
  • Master the processes of feeding and nutrition at cell and organism level, in the different groups of animals, vegetables, bacteria, algae, funguses, etc.
  • Solve complex problems (in which two or more concepts are related) of forces and movement
  • Propose simple experiments to check that values obtained from different measuring apparatuses are correct
  • Identify the forces involved in different situations in daily life
  • Recognise the importance of chemical reactions in relation to processes requiring energy consumption, in biological processes and in material synthesis processes
- 3% - 3%
300
  • Identify and analyze soil components
  • Explain the mechanisms for folds and rifts to appear, related to the different types and their causes
  • Prepare hypotheses on the movement of the planets
  • Have basic knowledge of the transmission of hereditary characteristics, applying simple laws of genetics
  • Understand the flows of matter and energy in diverse ecosystems
  • Associate different animal and vegetable taxonomy with the procedures for their vital functions
  • Identify the forces involved in the different daily life situations
  • Master the concepts related to electric phenomena (charges and electric power)
  • Have consolidated the principles and rules of formulation, applied to organic and inorganic chemistry
  • Understand the meaning of chemical equations (knowledge of the energy exchanges in chemical reactions, interpretation and representation of chemical equations and equation adjustment)
  • Identify chemical reactions in daily life situations
  • Know the states of matter, identifying it by its most important properties
3% 21% 3% 24%
250
  • Determine different ways to crop on all kinds of soil
  • Identify existing types of rock from the forms of relief
  • Understand the displacement of the tectonic plates and their relation to the geological changes in the continents and their influence on the evolution of living beings
  • Explain the levels of organisation of the different ecosystems
  • Establish relations between vegetable morphology and physiology
  • Integrate knowledge of energy and movement, being able to derive characteristics of the bodies according to changes of energy
  • Apply simple rules of chemical nomenclature and formulation
  • Know the characteristics of the different materials
26% 4% 29% 65%
200
  • Interpret weather maps
  • Relate series of data, as meterological data and their relevant simple graphs
  • Establish relationship between air pollution and quality of life
  • Establish relations in the sky to allow geographic orientation
  • Provide plausible explanations as to different types of relief being formed to characterise a landscape
  • Associating negative dietary habits to their consequences for one’s health
  • Describe the function of nutrition in the human being
  • Identify the major taxonomic groups of animals and plants
  • Solve simple problems involving the movement of bodies
49% 29% 78% 94%
150   20% 6% 98% 100%
100   2% - 100% 100%


The global results indicate that 78% of the students aged 14 are over the performance level 200, reaching at least the knowledge and skills defined in it. However, there are 49% of these who only achieve that knowledge and skill, and no higher target. Moreover, 22% do not even reach that minimum level, and thus do not deserve to be assigned any competence at all in the matter. One must also point out the scarce number of students (3%) at this age who reach level 300.

At age 16, 65% of the students are above level 250 with the relevant knowledge and skills. Again, one must note that 49% of them remain at that level without greater achievement. A very high percentage (29%) still remains below the 200 level, that is, with frankly insatisfactory results, and a minority (6%) seems completely beyond all learning of the subject, not having achieved any of the skills measured by the test.

It is obvious that these results cannot be considered positive, in spite of the progress between one age and the other, which on the other hand is not excessively high (37 points), as we have seen.


Previous Table of Contents Next


© Instituto Nacional de Calidad y Evaluación (INCE)
calle San Fernando del Jarama, 14
E28002 MADRID
Tel: +34 91.745.9200
Fax: +34 91.745.9249
email: info@ince.mec.es