Review

Dans Alvarez de Sotomayor, I. and Varela Portela, C. (2022). Educational programming. Core items. Madrid: Editorial Universitas, S. A., 122 pages. ISBN: 9788479915858.

The book is the result of theory and educational practice of two university teachers who stand out for their innovative attitude and teaching experience, as well as the research carried out on didactics subject as an instrument for improving the programs in the Degrees applying the updated criteria of the curriculum, its legal justification along with the development of skills, content, and methodologies, bearing in mind the attention to diversity.

The book begins with an introduction that includes the importance of the teacher who has prepared their classes so that they can carry out their subjects with quality and guide the student. All the curricular elements are explained to carry out a correct didactic planning. Furthermore, both authors combine the methodological innovation of classrooms and traditional pedagogy knowing how to combine both tasks without neglecting either to achieve a flexible curriculum integrating each of the students considering their cognitive, affective, intellectual capacities and sociocultural changes.

For this reason, the following chapter deals with the contextualization together with the entire educational community indicating its importance before programming, for this reason it is recommended to include the structure of the school organization that implies the presence of the governing bodies, both the single-person ones that are integrated by the management team and coordinators (teams or departments and course tutors) together with the members who refer to the faculty, school council and parent associations. It is indicated that each centre has its own culture that participates in an institutional, administrative, and legislative culture, always with regard to inclusion in the classrooms.

In the third chapter, the curricular levels are collected with a more contemporary vision (Priestley et al., 2021) so that the teacher can implement in their programming perfecting each of the levels (supra, macro, meso, micro and nano). This approach offers us an international panorama since it specifies the influence of the different international organizations in charge of education such as the OECD, UNESCO and collecting those 2020-2030 objectives for Sustainable Development, specifically in objective 4 of the Agenda 2030 that includes aspects for quality education. In addition, the different Spanish educational laws are collected, highlighting the last two: the LOMCE and the LOMLOE, highlighting three essential concepts: inclusive education, skills, and diversity. Thus, it is specified how to carry out a good complete and realistic didactic programming, legal references must be included together with a set of organization documents of the center to be able to apply the corresponding curriculum.

In the fourth chapter, one of the essential concepts of the LOMLOE is nuanced: the abilities that involve the combination of skills, knowledge, motivation, ethical values, attitudes, and emotions that both teachers and students must acquire. In addition, the different professional abilities are distinguished, both generic and instrumental or transversal, although emphasis is placed on digital competence that affects the whole of society, where it is subdivided into six areas: professional commitment; digital content; teaching and learning; evaluation and feedback; empowerment of students and the development of digital competence of students. All this involves distinguishing that any competence must include 4 basic knowledge: knowing how to know; know to do; knowing how to be and knowing how to be.

The fifth chapter indicates the objectives that should be framed in the coherence of the programming since these involve the intermediate steps to achieve the results, it is about specifying the teaching-learning process, so each of the stages will be considered. Educational institutions that are taught along with the psycho-evolutionary development of the student, specifying the following: the general objectives of the stage, specific to each area for the stage, the specific ones of the cycle and the didactic objectives for each subject, didactic unit, or project.

In the following chapter reference is made to the contents that these consider the metacurricular objectives that are essential for learning. For this reason, the contents appear collected, published, or expressed in the curricular materials. In this way, it is specified that there are certain contents that are specific to each discipline, traditional or perpetual contents as opposed to the new contents that arise as a response to a flexible teaching and located in a cultural context and the transversal ones that respond with flexibility.

The seventh chapter deals with the methodology that is the maximum exponent of teacher autonomy since it is the set of strategies, procedures and actions organized to facilitate the learning of the dissident considering the different teaching methods: inductive, deductive, analytical, and synthetic. Depending on each of these methods, different methodological strategies will be used as content exposure.

For this reason, the authors present different strategies such as: learning contracts, cooperative learning, project-based learning, flipped classroom, gamification, design thinking, thought-based learning, and service-learning among others.

In the eighth chapter, evaluation is presented, which “is the process by which information related to a certain activity is collected, analysed and interpreted, with the double objective of making judgments and facilitating decision-making, in terms of thematic adjustments, reorientation of objectives, reformulation of profiles, selection and reorganization of resources, etc.” (Roldan, 2005). The difference between formative, summative, continuous, and final evaluation is nuanced, always bearing in mind that, for both the teacher and the student, evaluation enhances improvement and decision-making, always focusing on student learning. In addition, techniques and instruments are indicated that could be useful to carry out, such as: summative tests, observation, interview, work, portfolio, reflective diary, conceptual map, among others.

The following chapter specifies those cross-cutting elements that a didactic unit could contain and on which any teacher would have to ensure that they are integrated into the classroom and the curriculum. Therefore, in chapter ten, the resources, materials, and didactic means that teachers can use to promote good didactic programming are nuanced, considering the features that characterize the digital learning objectives, offering a good bibliographic selection that accompanies especially more advanced subjects. focused on communication, culture, or literature. For this reason, attention to diversity is indicated in the antepenultimate chapter, assessing capacities, motivations, cognition, and other individual differences, always considering the different educational stages: infant, primary, secondary, and special education.

In the last two chapters we find some proposals for improvement focused on those people who are teaching, considering the legislative prism, and providing a list of bibliographical references that can help integrate and deepen the teaching task. In short, it is a useful work for teachers of any educational level and area of knowledge since the objective is to plan a teaching program.

Gloria Gallego Jiménez