Whereas one of the potential uses of Socioscientific Issues-based instruction in basic education is to engage students in scientific practices, there is a lack of empirical evidence showing that this is indeed what happens in the classroom. On this basis, the present study analysed teachers' adaptations of pre-made SSI-based lessons in light of…

Background: The growth of teaching practices conducted to promote cognitive activation and active participation in the classroom in recent years has become the epicentre of an active debate regarding their effectiveness. Objectives: This study is aimed to shed some light on this topic by empirically analysing the causes and consequences of more…

This article aims to point out how school autonomy helps principals reach higher quality by increasing flexibility in three areas: pedagogy, organization and management. Autonomy leads to an improvement in student performance and, consequently, in educational quality. A theoretical framework based on literature review and PISA results is followed…

The present work seeks to deepen the impact of factors linked to the characteristics of teaching practices and students' attitudes towards the use of technology on their performance in mathematics in the process of teaching-learning in the Spanish context. In this sense, this study is a secondary analysis of the PISA 2012 data. Therefore, it is an…

This article describes an innovative teaching approach that can offer the changes needed for school improvement. When entering an Education: Basic and Interactive (EBI) classroom, one will see students focused on accomplishing self-guided tasks and eager to move on to the next challenge in their self-paced learning. The EBI Project described here…

Analysis of differential item functioning (DIF) is often used to determine if cross-lingual assessments are equivalent across languages. However, evidence on the causes of cross-lingual DIF is still evasive. Expert appraisal is a qualitative method useful for obtaining detailed information about problematic elements in the different linguistic…

Educational quality is defined and shaped by the classroom practices implemented by teachers in our schools. The Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS)-PISA link presents a unique opportunity to explore what takes place in the classroom by listening to the voices of teachers and students. Teachers, with their professional training and…

Differential item functioning (DIF) can undermine the validity of cross-lingual comparisons. While a lot of efficient statistics for detecting DIF are available, few general findings have been found to explain DIF results. The objective of the article was to study DIF sources by using a mixed method design. The design involves a quantitative phase…

This study aims to examine to what extent the field of competence regarding curriculum knowledge is concordant with the other sub-competency fields of teaching. These fields are field knowledge, pedagogic competence in field teaching, use of information and communication technologies in teaching, student behaviours and class management,…

This volume offers a comprehensive, up-to-date, empirical and methodological view over the new scenarios and environments for language teaching and learning recently emerged (e.g. blended learning, e-learning, ubiquitous learning, social learning, autonomous learning or lifelong learning), and also over some of the new approaches to language…

This article focuses on analysing the effect of educational differentiation policies of OECD educational systems on socioeconomically disadvantaged students, based on data from PISA 2009. The analysis is conducted on the basis of a definition of two subgroups of disadvantaged students: those that achieve high scores, and those obtaining scores…

In this paper we explore the views and opinions of four secondary education science teachers regarding the teaching of scientific competences. Their views were gathered in the context of a training programme in which they had to design, implement, and assess their own teaching unit for developing students' scientific competences by means of…

The need for innovation in the Spanish educational system has become more evident in the wake of the last PISA reports. To find our own way to achieve better schools we "must" take advantage of what schools that managed to sustain changes over time have learnt from such a process. This paper reports on findings from an inquiry that tried…

This collection of papers presented at the 13th European Conference on Reading brings together a vast range of knowledge, research, and perspectives about literacy and its complex processes. The book explores topics including: (1) Literacy and critical thinking; (2) Working with learners at all levels, from young children to adolescents to…