Analysis of the key competencies as core curriculum of the compulsory education in Spain

Abstract

The inclusion of key competencies as an element of the curriculum for basic education in Spain was an important novelty due to the 2006 Education Act. The term had been previously in use in the field of vocational training for a long time, but in the last decade it was gradually transferred to the vocabulary of general education. The concern manifested by international organisations involved in the evaluation of educational outcomes was one of the outstanding factors explaining such a development. The European Union assumed that approach and recommended Member States in 2006 the incorporation of key competencies to the curriculum for basic education. After incorporating the key competencies to the curriculum for primary and secondary education through the Education Act, the main regulations setting the national core curriculum did establish and define them. Through that process they really became the common core curriculum for Spanish schools. The eight key competencies were also connected with the objectives, contents and assessment criteria for all areas and subjects of primary and lower secondary education levels. The development of the key competencies implies a revision of other curricular components, namely two of them: teaching and learning methodology and students’ assessment. Moreover, it obliges to pay special attention to non formal learning and to the influence of school organisation and climate.