Report on competency-based learning in Spain: diagnosis and recommendations for a successful curriculum transformation

Fundación Vodafone España and Haz, la Alianza por la Educación set the working group the central objective of exploring the competency-based curriculum and its effective implementation and assessment in Spain. This exercise was carried out through 8 online sessions held between April and September 2021, organised by Fundación Vodafone España and the Center for Economic Policy and Political Economy (EsadeEcPol). These sessions gathered experiences, ideas and proposals from schools and specialists in competency-based curriculum and assessment. The following specific objectives were considered:

• Reflecting on what a competency-based curriculum is in practice and how competency-based learning contributes to developing “deep learning” of curriculum subjects.
• Gathering information from different specialists in the education community on curriculum materials, in order to:

– Identify best practices (at school and education system level) for implementing a competency-based learning model.

– Identify best practices for measuring and assessing competency-based learning models, both at school and system level.

– Identify the potential public policy processes (associated with participation, innovation and research) that should be followed for the successful implementation of a competency-based curriculum.

This document sets out the most relevant lessons from these sessions, as well as a review of existing academic research. It presents a diagnosis of the state of curriculum policies and practices in schools and administrations in Spain, as well as of the key elements that explain, enable or hinder them. On this basis, it presents different strategies and actions that could be useful for administrations and schools in the future.