Instruction for Mathematics and Science in Primary and Lower Secondary Grades
The official national curriculum is interpreted by each autonomous community, and is further developed by individual schools through their specific educational projects and Annual School Program. Schools adapt these documents to the characteristics of their own cultural and social environment by establishing their own syllabi, teaching materials, and extracurricular activities.
Teachers establish the final level of curricular specificity by planning their lessons and selecting the appropriate teaching strategies, resources, and activities. In primary school, teaching units are frequently based on students’ own experiences. In science, for example, students might study the seasons of the year, food preparation, and parks and gardens. In mathematics, they might solve word problems about everyday situations and create graphs and charts on sports results, common objects, or geometric shapes. However, in secondary education, the science curriculum is based progressively on the logical structure of the disciplines and sciences (e.g., chemical reactions, geological processes, and diversity of living things). In the mathematics curriculum, concepts and activities become increasingly more abstract (e.g., introducing algebra and using mathematics language).
Grade at Which Specialist Teachers for Mathematics and Science are Introduced
Specialist teachers for mathematics and science are mandatory from the first year of secondary education (Grade 7) onward.
Instructional Materials, Equipment, and Laboratories
School departments (cycle-based in primary schools and subject-based in secondary schools) choose textbooks that have been approved by the Educational Board under the system of school autonomy described above. Individual teachers also have the option to prepare and use their own instructional materials. In either case, teaching materials must be reported on the school’s official documents—the Annual School Program in particular, which includes the Cycle Teaching Programs (in primary schools) and the Subject Department Programs (in secondary schools). The Education Inspection Service monitors these documents.
Primary schools are not required to have laboratories, although there are often classrooms in which experiments can be conducted. Secondary schools are required to have at least one science laboratory for every 12 students.
Use of Technology
The Spanish education system is undergoing a rapid growth of new technologies. Consequently, schools are increasing the quantity and use of computing equipment and adjusting teacher education to account for these changes. Most autonomous communities are updating classrooms and libraries in all schools to provide quick access to Information and Communications Technology (ICT), and to ensure that students have access to digital environments. All schools have computer rooms and digital portable projectors, and some classrooms also are equipped with interactive whiteboards. In addition, schools have an ICT coordinator, and virtual classrooms, educational blogs, and platforms for online activities are quite common and continue to expand.
Official curricula in mathematics specify the use of graphing and scientific calculators, spreadsheets, and other specific mathematics software.