Promoting Transdisciplinary and Competency-based Learning Using Web GIS in the Spanish Secondary School Classroom

This article revisits an action research project conducted in 2018 at an international secondary school in Spain, exploring how to improve student attitudes towards reading in 1st ESO (ages 12–13). Prompted by widespread disengagement from reading for pleasure, the project aimed to reimagine reading pedagogy by embedding student choice, creative response tasks, and dedicated reading time into the English curriculum. Using a teacher-led action research methodology, the team collected student surveys, reflections, and classroom observations over two research cycles. Key findings included a measurable increase in student engagement when learners were offered autonomy in their reading practices and modes of response. However, the project also revealed tensions between fostering student agency and navigating curricular demands. Revisiting this work in 2025—amid renewed attention to critical literacy, curriculum decolonisation, and post-pandemic shifts in learner engagement – we reflect on what endures from the project and what needs reimagining. In particular, we consider how the pandemic’s exposure of social inequities and the acceleration of digital learning demand a more explicit integration of critical literacy frameworks to equip students with the tools to question power, representation, and access in an increasingly complex world.

This paper explores the impact of school libraries on students' reading achievement at primary and secondary school in Spain. Firstly, it is provided an overview of the state of the art of the research on libraries' impact in the Spanish education context. Secondly, a statistical analysis is conducted by using the datasets released from the international student assessment surveys, as an attempt to measure and confirm the effect of school libraries on students' scoring. With a quantitative empirical approach, the paper seeks to test the influence of the library as a predictive variable for achievement results in international reading assessments. Framework and datasets released from PISA 2009 and PIRLS 2011 surveys are used as a source for the statistical analysis. The systematic procedure for data selection, together with variables operationalization are explained. Then, possible associations between variables are explored. The results suggest statistically significant evidences of the positive impact of school libraries on students' reading scoring at secondary school. Finally, the paper explores those limitations concerning the analysis at primary school. Therefore, further research issues are suggested. This work is part of an ongoing doctoral research which is focused on the impact assessment of libraries in learning contexts.

EFL students in Spain are expected to have a good pronunciation when they finish secondary education. However, many times practitioners avoid teaching it. This study aims at investigating how training in general phonetics/phonology and pronunciation teaching affects EFL teachers’ beliefs and attitudes towards pronunciation instruction in secondary schools in Spain. Thirty-eight teachers took an online survey from May to October 2023. A mixed-method analysis was conducted: first, three different linear mixed models were run to examine eleven different teachers’ beliefs rated on a 7-point Likert scale; second, teachers’ opinions on the instruction of different pronunciation features were examined with percentages. Results reveal that those teachers who have received training show a more positive attitude, especially when having received training in pronunciation teaching. Besides, intonation stands as the most important feature to teach. These findings suggest that pronunciation should have a more prominent role within teaching professional development.

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to focus on the informal learning (IL) processes of teachers in primary and secondary schools in Spain. Its objective is to study the strategies currently used by teachers to generate IL, identifying the factors that condition such learning and the changes that must be introduced to enhance it.Design/methodology/approachThe methodology is qualitative, with information from interviews with school principals (n = 21) and teachers (n = 60) from 22 primary and secondary schools in Spain and from 3 discussion groups with experts (n = 17). The topics used refer to strategies to generate and promote IL and its conditioning factors.FindingsThe findings suggest that, regardless of the stage (primary/secondary) and ownership of the centre (state/private), the teaching staff use IL strategies that, beyond individual actions, involve meeting, sharing and reflecting with other teachers. The challenge is that IL facilitates both professional development and the development and improvement of the organizations. School principals play a central role in achieving this relationship and promoting the institutionalization of changes and educational administration in facilitating the right conditions for their development and recognition.Research limitations/implicationsGiven that the participation of schools in the research was voluntary, as was that of the teachers who agreed to be interviewed, some bias may exist. To refine the analyses it would also have been interesting to contrast with the people interviewed some of the assessments which appeared in the focus groups. Finally, future work might focus on analysing in greater detail the effect of different management styles on IL.Practical implicationsThe results presented point to the need for decisive support from school leadership teams for collaborative work processes and joint reflection, which are one of the basic conditions for facilitating IL and, at the same time, for encouraging organizational learning. Furthermore, in the Spanish context, there is the challenge of combining the participation of teachers in formal training actions with the recognition of IL generated in the development of daily professional activity.Originality/valueThe data provided complements and reaffirms the findings of research carried out in other types of organizations, at the same time highlighting the importance of horizontal relationships among education professionals and the difficulty of creating a solid foundation for organizational changes. Improvements are, on the other hand, highly conditioned by the role adopted by school principals.

This paper addresses the intersection between the inclusion of students with special needs and those with cultural/linguistic differences. Using data from a qualitative study in a rural secondary school in Spain, the author found that school personnel effectively distinguished between cultural needs and cognitive deficits. However, a one‐way model of assimilation, a knowledge transmission model of pedagogy and the retention of the traditional canon as the goal of secondary learning defeated the school’s efforts to implement inclusion for both groups of students in particular, Moroccan immigrants. This mismatch resulted in professional role conflicts and frustration. Spain’s changing education legislation provides the context for the study.

Studies of the socio-economic function of entrepreneurship have emphasized the critical role that entrepreneurial competence and its implementation play at different stages of the education system. In this paper, as a research objective, we seek to determine the entrepreneurial interest of Spanish youth aged between 15 and 18 years of age enrolled in formal secondary education programs, an initial stage in the development of entrepreneurship. A previously validated ad hoc questionnaire is applied through simple random sampling to 1764 students at secondary school in Spain. A descriptive cross-sectional study is carried out. The analysis is done with Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs), a technique that reduces the high dimensionality of data through Cooperative Maximum Likelihood Hebbian Learning (CMLHL), applying neurocomputational methods to the educational sciences. We find as key results that Spanish youth express a medium level of interest in entrepreneurship. Analysis with ANNs shows that education in entrepreneurial competence is an influential aspect of interest in entrepreneurship. As a conclusion, our results suggest that educational and curricular reforms must be undertaken to promote the development of entrepreneurial competence at various stages of education in order to increase interest in entrepreneurship.

After analyzing the scientific literature referring to guiding actions developed in secondary education, there is an appreciable lack of research on process efficiency performed by teachers. This study explores the practice of tutoring, which in Spain is coordinated by counselors but the responsibility of teachers. An ad hoc semistructured questionnaire was designed, validated and applied within the framework of a collaboration agreement between professional institutions of counselors and researchers. The questionnaire was answered by 102 counselors who are heads of guidance departments because the insight of counseling experts was desired. The quantitative and qualitative data analyses indicated correlations between the profile of the counselors and the performance of tutoring, described the content and predominant intervention models and identified needs for improvement. A much more intensive and direct intervention by counselors is necessary in a system in which teachers are not trained enough and time dedicated to tutorial action is deficient. Notably, counselors coordinate and supervise tutoring, but they feel overwhelmed by the lack of concrete norms and their workload.

Augmented Reality (AR) is now being used in education across various subjects. The number of AR applications has increased with the popularity of smartphones. In this study, we explore the use of AR-based apps for teaching astronomy in the last four years of secondary education in Spain. The study includes an experimental group and a control group to show the benefits of using AR in the classroom. We conducted a pretest-posttest design, with a knowledge questionnaire given before and after the teaching period. 130 students aged 12 to 16, from a secondary school in Spain were divided into four groups, each having a control and an experimental group. The experimental group showed significant improvement in academic performance through the use of AR. This research aligns with previous studies, confirming that the use of AR makes Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) learning more engaging compared to traditional teaching methods.

This article deals with the opinions and attitudes of the adolescent population toward death and its possible treatment in formal education at a public secondary school in Spain. To do so, we use a mixed methodology - DEA-S scale (n = 366) and three focus groups (n = 23), using descriptive statistical analysis, cluster analysis and qualitative thematic analysis. As in other studies, these students show moderately positive attitudes toward the inclusion of death education at their school, but their position is not unanimous, and above all, they admit its inclusion with certain reservations and conditions that reveal a limited conception of the educational potential of death education: they do not consider it appropriate at all educational stages and are critical of the way in which similar topics are usually dealt with at school. The analysis provides important didactic guidelines for the promotion of death awareness in secondary education.

Background International research suggests the value of school Intergenerational Programmes (IPs) and intergenerational schools. However, there is a scarcity of studies at country level exploring the process of expanding from the introduction of intergenerational activities to adopting an intergenerational school model. Purpose This study sought to further the understanding of the ways in which IPs are being incorporated into schools in Spain. Method Primary and secondary schools in Spain that were carrying out intergenerational activities with educational purposes were identified. A sample of 25 schools was examined and key personnel were interviewed. Data from seven schools which had incorporated intergenerational work in the format of a programme were selected for further analysis. Qualitative thematic analysis of the seven selected cases ensued, in order to describe IP features including programme content and integration of the IP in the school curriculum. Findings The analysis of the data from key personnel interviews found that intergenerational programmes were only partially integrated in the everyday life and academic activity of sampled schools. However, it was evident that key personnel also considered that the children who were participating felt affection for the older people involved and appeared to enjoy an authentic relationship with them; older participants also registered some apparent benefits. Key personnel concluded that these programmes did achieve their goals and bring about a high level of satisfaction. However, the study also indicated that the school IPs that were analysed were the fruit of individual rather than institutional interests, suggesting limited stakeholder involvement on the part of public authorities. Conclusions Our study suggests that schools in Spain have not yet developed sufficiently to implement intergenerational education projects in line with international intergenerational schools elsewhere. Further analysis would be necessary to better comprehend the reasons for what seems to limit the integration and embedding of IPs into the curriculum. The study highlights a need to understand further how to infuse an intergenerational component in current formal pedagogical and educational school practices, with the aim of utilising the benefits of IPs for the improvement of compulsory education.

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to evaluate the application of quality management systems (QMS) based on international standards of quality in education (ISO 9001:2008) and ascertain the influence of this quality model on primary and secondary schools in Spain.Design/methodology/approachThe study was conducted in 26 publicly funded, private schools in Spain. The research design was a three-phase, mixed-methods evaluation. In all, 809 teachers answered the main survey questionnaire in Phase 3, which was validated through expert reviews and exploratory factor analysis against two theoretically derived dimensions of quality. The total scores of the two dimensions demonstrated Cronbach’s alpha reliability estimate > 0.95. A discriminant function analysis was applied next to compare three groups of schools based on teachers’ QMS ratings, using students’ achievement and other school quality indicators as predictors.FindingsThe QMS model was perceived to have contributed to improvements in documentation and management through evaluation, continuous improvement processes, the schools’ external image, management of resources and user satisfaction levels. Some of the improvements lasted over time. The schools rated as “high” by teachers on QMS implementation levels had better educational outcomes, as well as user perception and satisfaction levels, as compared to schools rated as “low”. Drawbacks of the QMS model were perceived as high bureaucratic workloads and a top–down management culture.Practical implicationsThe findings suggest that ISO standards of QMS can be adopted in primary and secondary education institutions successfully, and that they are suitable for improving schools and educational systems overall.Originality/valueThe study’s originality lies in the demonstrated outcomes of the QMS approach, originally created for industrial environments, in a large Spanish primary and secondary education institution using a three-phase, mixed-methods design.

PurposeThe transfer of training has been identified with the effectiveness of training. The purpose of this work is to analyse the impact of training stages (training needs analysis, application and evaluation) as they relate to training transfer.Design/methodology/approachThe study participants correspond to a sample of 116 teachers with managerial responsibilities (management teams and department heads) from 17 secondary schools in Spain. This work hypothesises five significant relationships: needs analysis and application of training, application and transfer of training, evaluation and analysis of training needs, evaluation and application of training and evaluation and transfer of training. The hypotheses were tested using structural equations, namely, the partial least squares–structural equation modelling technique and SmartPLS version 3.2.9.FindingsThe relationships between application and transfer of training, between evaluation of training and needs analysis, application and transfer of training are positively contrasted. The relationship between the analysis and application of training is not contrasted.Originality/valueThis work analyses the relationship between the training process’s different phases (analysis, application and evaluation) in the training output (training transfer) and emphasises the role of evaluation in the training process.

Schools in Spain are improving in information and communication technologies (ICT) and in the teaching of digital competencies. This is achievable through some interesting initiatives: the “Escuela 2.0” project approved by the government to put computers in many schools and the educational material that the National Geographical Institute, the Andalusia Institute of Cartography, and some other institutions are putting on the Internet. Perhaps these initiatives will be among the first steps to introduce GIS in secondary schools in Spain in the future.

As part of the educational reform approved in 1990, a new science curriculum for secondary education is beginning to be implemented in Spain, Some distinguishing features are; an extended period of debate and testing, beginning in 1983; a greater involvement of innovative teachers and associations in its production; and an explicit relationship with certain educational theories. The paper discusses how some controversial issues, such as co‐ordinated or separated disciplines, were handled; what happens to the designed curriculum once it gets to the classrooms; and some of the benefits and problems related to its implementation.

This paper shows the current situation of the R&D project ‘Analysis of the training model of secondary education teachers: identifying needs and proposals for improvement’. This project is focusing on the analysis, study and design of concrete proposals to assist in decision-making processes at two levels: (a) in the design of methodological strategies within the teaching practice and (b) the inclusion, where appropriate, of training models within the framework of the subjects currently defined in the new Master on Teacher Training for Secondary Schools in Spain. The project started in 2011/2012 and has been performed since then among the students of the new compulsory Master’s Degree. In this context, the present paper aims to study and analyse the training needs perceived by the students of this Master’s degree at the University of Seville. This analysis is complemented by a study on the monitoring reports of the Master’s degree by the University of Seville and the National Agency for Evaluation. The purpose of the study is to identify the extent to which a future training program (either a Master’s degree or any other alternative) must provide the development of skills focused on theoretical knowledge (contents) or the practical development thereof (competencies, abilities, or attitudes).