Home Elements for a Diagnosis of the Spanish Educational System
3 - Syllabus and teaching methods (continued)


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Differences according to school


DIFFERENCES BASED ON HOLDERSHIP. THE INTERSCHOOL CULTURE

There are differences provided by different dominant subcultures at privately held schools and public schools.

Teachers at private schools are noted to teach on the basis of the instrumental areas and conceptual contents. Greater attention is paid to the officially set planning modes (educational project, syllabus, etc.) as graph 13 shows.



Graph 13. Differences in evaluation, according to type of school

They use and value the texts books more. They have more resources available. They have a greater acceptance of syllabus adaptation and strategies to attend to diversity. They bid in a more determined way on integration of students with special educational needs. They favour evaluation and promotion of students based on the Reform, although their background is that of traditional evaluation and criteria promotion evaluation (graph 14).



Graph 14. Differences in subject planning by holdership

The opinion is that there is a "functional atmosphere" in these schools consisting of greater use of a discipline based on positive reinforcement. These also express a "cultural optimism" which is defined by a lesser amount of disciplinary problems and a greater interest by the parents in the educational process of their children. Lastly, they have a much greater appreciation of the orientation departments as support from the institutional bodies and consider tutorials an inherently function for which the teachers are sufficiently qualified.

State schools value flexible content less, and seem to have greater difficulties in bringing about integration of students with special educational needs, are more in favour of an evaluation based on conceptual contents.

The teaching staff at state schools clearly shows its posture of greater separation from the supposed reality portrayed in the educational reform. The teachers at privately owned schools show a greater involvement in the reform approach.

These notes may be used to describe two different cultures, two different ways of understanding teaching. They are two types of interpretation and intervention in reality, which exist independently, one from the other. There are differences between schools, in which contacts between teachers are purely conjunctural.




MALE AND FEMALE TEACHERS. INTERSCHOOL CULTURE

The situation between male and female teachers is different. The interaction is more intense. They are relations within the school. Their functionality as to the need for a certain coordination seems to be greater. Moreover, the differences are not so intense.

Women show themselves to be better innovators, value the general elements of the contents and objectives of the reform and the instrumental areas better. They have a better appraisal of conventional along with experience based programming (graph 15). They have a greater appraisal of text books and thus use them more and optimise the available resources. They use more than one conventional methodology. They are in favour of evaluation and promotion based on reform, also of criterias and, lastly, of traditional evaluation.



Graph 15. Averages obtained in methodologies by sex

Male teachers have a more traditional view of academic reality and accept the Reform proposals related to subject planning less. They are more in favour of lecturing and product evaluation (graph 16).



Graph 16. Differences in subject planning by sex

The cultural differences between these two groups, except in these aspects, are much more contrasted.

One may raise a series of questions based on this analysis of two lines of teacher approach. Perhaps the central matter may be to what extent the educational system accepts disagreement between its groups as an optimising factor. It also seems that the "margins for tolerance", the slack that may be assumed, is greater in cases of disagreement between schools than in cases within a school.

The problem consists of evaluating those margins for tolerance.


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