Curriculum, subjects, number of hours

The curriculum is understood as the set of objectives, competences (key and specific), contents (stated in the form of basic knowledge), pedagogical methods (through learning situations) and assessment criteria.

The European Union's guidelines stress the need for citizens to acquire key competences as an essential condition for ensuring that each individual achieves full personal, social and professional development in line with the demands of a globalised, technological and changing world and makes knowledge-linked economic and social development possible.

Following these recommendations, in Spain they were incorporated into the non-university education system. The Organic Law 2/2006 on Education (LOE) already referred, in its explanatory memorandum, among other things, to the need for social cohesion, lifelong learning and the knowledge society, and introduced the term basic competences for the first time into educational regulations.

Similarly, Recommendation 2006/962/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council called on Member States to develop the provision of key competences. Subsequently, Recommendation 2018/C 189/01 of the Council established a European reference framework with eight key competences:

• literacy competence;
• multilingual competence;
• mathematical competence and competence in science, technology and engineering;
• digital competence;
• personal, social and learning to learn competence;
• citizenship competence;
• entrepreneurial competence;
• cultural awareness and expression competence.

Its incorporation into the school curriculum entails a number of consequences:

• Their effective acquisition and integration into the curriculum is achieved through the design of integrated learning activities that enable learners to progress towards the learning outcomes in several competences at the same time, as many of these competences overlap and are interlinked.
• There is no universal relationship between the teaching of certain areas or subjects and the development of certain competences; each teaching area contributes to the development of different competences and, in turn, each competence is achieved as a result of working in various areas or subjects.

The Administration, through the Ministry of Education and Vocational Training (MEFP), after consulting the autonomous communities, establishes the basic curriculum (compulsory minimum teaching throughout the country in terms of objectives, competences, content and assessment criteria) in order to ensure common education for all pupils. These minimum teachings make up 50 per cent of the school timetables in the autonomous communities with a co-official language and 60 per cent for those without it.

The education authorities in the autonomous communities establish the curriculum in their respective areas of administration, which must include the minimum teaching requirements established by the MEFP. In addition, they must periodically review those curricula in order to adapt them to the advances in knowledge, as well as to the changes and new demands of their local area, of Spanish society and of the European and international context.

The curriculum of bachillerato education is organised into successive levels of concretion, which progressively adapt to the specificities of the school environment and the students who attend it.

Accordingly, schools also play an active role, developing, completing and adapting the curriculum to the pupils' needs and to their environment. To this end, they prepare a series of tools for formulating their pedagogic and curricular organisation:

• the school development plan, which includes the application of the established curricula by the education administration;
• the yearly general programme;
• the didactic programmes;
• the written report at the end of the school year, which reflects and evaluates the school activities and the running of the school.

The educational community takes part in the elaboration of these documents through the respective government and coordination teaching bodies of the school. The curricula established by the education administration are set and approved by the school staff, as well as the educational aspects of the yearly general programme.

Structure

Bachillerato is developed in different modalities, it is organised in a flexible way and in different itineraries, so that it can offer students a specialised preparation in accordance with their educational prospects and interests or allow them to join the labour market once they have completed it.

The modalities of bachillerato studies which may be offered by the education authorities and, where appropriate, by schools are the following: 

• Science and Technology;
• Humanities and Social Sciences;
• Arts;
• General.

Bachillerato is organised into common subjects, modality subjects and elective subjects.

The Government, after consulting the autonomous communities, is responsible for establishing the structure of the modalities, the specific subjects in each of them and the number of these subjects to be taken by the students.

Any student can choose from among all the established modality subjects. Each of the modalities can be organised in different itineraries that facilitate the specialisation of students for subsequent studies or for their incorporation into the labour market. Schools must offer all the subjects and, where appropriate, itineraries in each modality. The choice of subjects and itineraries can only be limited for students when there is an insufficient number of students, according to objective criteria previously established by the education authorities.

When the range of subjects provided at a school is limited for organisational reasons, the education authorities should make it easier for students to attend some subjects at other schools or through distance learning.

The common subjects in bachillerato studies are the following:

• physical education;
• philosophy
• history of philosophy;
• Spanish history
• Spanish language and literature and, if applicable, regional language and literature;
• a foreign language.

The education authorities are responsible for the organisation of elective subjects. Schools may make proposals for other elective subjects of their own, which require the prior approval of the corresponding education authority.

Catholic religion is a compulsory subject for schools and voluntary for students. In turn, the teaching of other religions complies with the cooperation agreements signed by the Spanish State with the different religious denominations.

The education authorities establish the linguistic models regarding the teaching of the official languages within their management sphere.

In addition, they may establish that part of the subjects of the curriculum might be taught in a foreign language, without altering the basic aspects of the curriculum. By the end of the stage, students must master the terminology of the subjects in both languages. However, schools that offer part of the subjects of the curriculum in a foreign language cannot include language requirements as admission criteria for students.

Teaching methods and materials

Teaching methods

Theteaching methodology is the set of strategies, procedures and actions consciously and thoughtfully organised and planned by teachers with the aim of guaranteeing student learning and the attainment of the stated objectives.

The MEFP establishes the methodological principles that must guide the teaching practice in bachillerato education. They feature the following characteristics:

• The educational activities in bachillerato programmes must foster students’ abilities to learn independently, work in teams and apply appropriate research methods.
• Special attention must be paid to the educational and vocational guidance of students, incorporating the gender perspective.
• The education authorities must promote the necessary measures in the different subjects to encourage and develop students’ reading as well as their ability to express themselves properly in public.
• In the organisation of bachillerato education, special attention must be paid to students with specific educational support needs. To this end, the organisational and methodological alternatives and measures to cater for diversity must be established in order to facilitate these students' access to the curriculum.

Within their pedagogic autonomy, schools are in charge of defining the teaching methods in the classroom, according to these pedagogic principles. They also decide on curricular materials and didactic resources. In this regard, they must develop their pedagogical proposals for all students, taking into account their diversity. Likewise, they must adopt methods that take into account the different learning paces of students, favour their ability to learn on their own and promote teamwork.

Each teacher can make their own methodological decisions, which must respect both the agreements made at school level and what the relevant education authorities establish.

Curricular materials and teaching resources

Textbooks and teaching materials do not require the previous authorisation of the education authorities for their adoption and publication. In any case, they must:

• be adapted to the scientific rigour adequate for the pupils’ age group and to the approved curriculum set by each education administration;
• reflect and promote respect for the principles, values, freedom, rights and constitutional duties, as well as the principles and values set out in current educational laws and in Organic Law 1/2004 on Comprehensive Protection Measures against Gender Violence, with which all educational activity must comply.

In the exercise of pedagogical autonomy, it is up to the educational coordination bodies of each public educational institution to decide on the textbooks and other materials to be used in the development of the different areas.

The supervision of textbooks and other curricular materials is the responsibility of the education authorities and constitutes part of the ordinary process of inspection carried out by each of them on all the elements composing the teaching and learning process. In any case, it is necessary to ensure respect for the principles and values contained in the Constitution and the provisions of all regulations in force.

Families pay for textbooks and school materials. The education authorities offer grants and financial support for post-compulsory education students, including students enrolled in bachillerato education, in order to contribute to this expenditure.

There are also some municipal or regional grants to cover these costs.

Finally, although various initiatives have been carried out to regulate the homework that students must do outside school hours, in Spain there is no specific legislation regulating this aspect. It therefore remains at the discretion of each teacher or whatever arrangements are made at the school.

Information and Communication Technologies

Education authorities and management teams at public schools should promote the use of information and communication technologies (ICT) in the classroom as an appropriate and valuable educational medium for carrying out teaching and learning tasks. Additionally, the education authorities must establish the conditions that make it possible to eliminate risk situations arising from the inappropriate use of ICT in the school environment, with special attention to situations of on-line violence. In accordance with the law, confidence and safety in the use of technologies must be fostered, paying special attention to the elimination of gender stereotypes that hinder the acquisition of digital competences under equal conditions.

Within the framework of the Digital Culture Plan at Schools developed by the Ministry of Education and Vocational Training (MEFP), the initiative Espacio Procomún Educativo  has been being developed, aimed at educational and learning purposes, mainly for the teaching community and students, but also for the general public.

Currently, Procomún is a network of open educational resources (OER), where you can search, display and download learning objects in standard formats and with open licenses for use in pre-university education. It integrates a social network as a meeting point for the educational community, which facilitates interaction with other users, creating communities, sharing, valuing and disseminating all kinds of educational resources. At the same time, it incorporates semantic technology linking it to other similar digital networks (Europeana, Redined, National Library, Prado Museum, Hispana y Dbpedia).

These OER are under open license (Creative Commons Spain), which allows free access, as well as their use, modification and redistribution by others without any restriction or with limited restrictions.

Meanwhile, the EDIA Project (Educational, Digital, Innovative and Open) of the National Centre for Curriculum Development in Non-Proprietary Systems (CEDEC) promotes and supports the creation of digital and methodological transformation dynamics in schools to improve student learning and promote new models for educational institutions.

EDIA offers a collection of educational content for primary education, among other educational levels. These open educational resources (OER) are curriculum-referenced and offer proposals for active methodologies and the promotion of digital competence in the classroom. The resources include all the templates, guides, rubrics and documents necessary to implement the didactic proposal in the classroom.

The OER are created with the eXeLearning, authoring tool, so that any teacher can access them to use them directly, but also download them and modify them according to their classroom context. The OER of the EDIA project have generated networks of teachers who discuss the use of resources and technology in the classroom. This virtual faculty constitutes a framework for experimentation to propose new educational content models that develop aspects such as accessibility and topics such as gender equality or digital citizenship.