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

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ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE IN GEOGRAPHY AND HISTORY

Evaluation of the areas of Geography and History, like in the cases of Spelling and Written Composition, was restricted to the MEC Territory, that is to say, the ten Autonomous Regions undergoing full devolvement in educational matters.

In the area of Geography, the knowledge of Physical Geography and Human Geography was appraised. The test includes items from Physical Geography related to the weather, topography, surface waters, vegetable formations and the physical regions. In to Human Geography, it appraised matters of human and environmental impact, cultural change, the characteristics and distribution of the urban and rural population, the economic factors, political organisation and the cultural regions. Along with these contents, an attempt was made at estimating the student’s capacity to know, understand and locate contents, and to applied diverse techniques and tools to these.

The blocks of History concern the time period covered by their title and include Prehistory, Ancient History, Medieval History, Modern History and Contemporary History. These also consider the capacities of knowing, understanding and explaining, along with application of different techniques and skills.

Table 10 shows the average percentage of correct answers in the area of Geography and History and relevant subareas for students aged 14 and 16.



Table 10: Average percentage of correct answers by subareas in Geography and History
Areas Average percentage of correct answers
Age 14 Age 16
HISTORY
Prehistory
Ancient History
Medieval History
Modern History
Contemporary History
GEOGRAPHY
Physical Geography
Human Geography
42%
38%
38%
47%
42%
42%
51%
49%
52%
41%
46%
41%
39%
44%
38%
53%
53%
54%
TOTAL 46% 46%


The sample aged 14 and that aged 16 obtained results showing the students were able to answer 46% of the answers correctly in the tests. One must remember that the test for age 16 is at a higher level than the one for age 14. In both cases, the results in the area of Geography are also better than those in History, as the students aged 14 answered 51% of the answers in Geography correctly, and those aged 16 53%, while in History the average percentages of correct answers were 42% and 41% respectively. Within the field of History, although the results were relatively balanced, Ancient History and Contemporary History seem to have the lowest results, and Medieval and Modern History better. in Geography the results are fairly similar, perhaps with a slight tendency for the results in Human Geography to be slightly better.

The resulting average (MEC Territory) after the tests administered to 14 year old students was 228.26 points, lying between the anchorage points of 200 and 250. This means that the average 14 year old student is able to perform the tasks linked to level 200 and has not yet reached the skills at point 250. As to students aged 16, the resulting average was 269.59, that is to say, somewhat more than 41 points above that for 14 years old, thus lying between 250 and 300.

Table 11 shows the skills and knowledge in the area of Geography and History for each one of the performance levels, as well as the percentages of students who pass each level.



Table 11: Performance in Geography and History. Percentage of students per level
Level Skills and knowledge in Geography and History On each level Exceed the level
The students are able to ... Age
14
Age
16
Age
14
Age
16
400
  • Know original place names of spots of historic interest
  • Know the people responsible for the important political changes in modern and contemporary Spain
  • Place periods the History of Spain in chronological order
  • Know the plans of cities from a historic point of view
- - - -
350
  • Have a detailed knowledge of the History of Spain since the moorish invasion, in art and social-political and economic evolution, in the setting of European evolution
  • Interpret graphs of the population and maps
  • Use global information on the present day world
  • Know the characteristics that define the past and present political systems
  • Relate characters, peoples and specific languages with historical events
- 2% - 2%
300
  • Know geographic, climatic and economic facts about America, Eastern Europe and Asia
  • Master historical time as to the evolution of ideas and the most outstanding events from the 14th century till present in Europe and Spain
  • Identify the main climatic and orographic features of the world
  • Know the important landmarks in Spanish art and literature
  • Know the most important effects and the presence of Spain in America
6% 19% 6% 21%
250
  • Know the climatic features of the Mediterranean region
  • Know the main historic and cultural developments of the Mediterranean basin
  • Know the production features of underdeveloped countries
  • Identify the location of far away events or countries
  • Know important features of the Spanish people
27% 50% 33% 71%
200
  • Know the features of the Spanish production system
  • Know the most outstanding European historic moments and characters
  • Establish simple relations between facts and consequences
38% 26% 71% 97%
150
  • Know basic data concerning the European climate
  • Identify the features of the Spanish orography
  • Know the activities of prehistoric man
23% 3% 94% 100%
100   6% - 100% -


71% of students aged 14 are able to understand the characteristics of the Spanish production system, the most outstanding moments and characters of European history, as well as the basic facts of European weather and the activities of the prehistoric man, and are also able to establish simple links between facts and consequences and to identify characteristics of the Spanish orography, passing the 200 performance level. However, nearly 29% do not reach this level. At the 250 level, 23% of the students reach it and 67% do not reach it. The high mark zone (300 points or more) is only reached by 6% of the students of that age, while a further 60% is located at the lowest end of the scale, showing full incapacity to successfully perform in the minimum learning foreseen.

At the age of 16, the results show clear progress compared with those at 14. However, those at 16 are not fully positive either, if one bears in mind that only 71% reach the aforementioned level of 250 and, thus, there is 29% what does not reach it, 26% of which remain on the previous level, that is 200, and 3% even below that. At the high end of the performance scale, only 2% obtain outstanding results. In what could be considered satisfactory performance, 21% of the students pass level 300 and are able to know the geographic, weather and economic facts of America, Eastern Europe and Asia, to master the historic time as to the evolution of ideas and the most outstanding events from the 19th Century to present in Europe and Spain, to identify the main climatic and orographic features of the world, and to know important events in Spanish art and culture and the most important effects of Spain on America.

Overall, it seems that these results are far from desirable. There is no doubt that it is important to increase all the measures and actions to manage to raise them.


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