New Perspectives in Science Education

Competence has come to befit current pedagogical processes that define the role of teachers, students, contents, methodologies, and skills to be developed. Furthermore, as the school of today urges students’ growth in terms of the knowledge and competence necessary for the world of tomorrow, there is an objective need to incorporate teachers and school policies in the process(es) of educational design and assessment as active facilitators of competence development. Nonetheless, school policies and educational boards may also play a key role in the failure to provide whatever academic, interpersonal, and behavioral scenarios upon which students are to act. This, inevitably, shall cause great issues in academic and social and emotional spheres and, hence, play havoc in the desired competential development of students. Moreover, such academic design, in the light of the aforementioned premises, shall fail to help flexible student-based and response-based methodology to ensure self-sustained engagement and motivation to occur, alongside little cognitive development and knowledge, hence, competence. This paper analyzes the case of a class on the last course of Middle School students who displayed great lack of behavioral, cognitive, and attitudinal worsening as a consequence of issues related to class distribution which failed to avoid appropriate grounds for competential and interpersonal development. What is more, the educational board of the school did not succeed in any pedagogic intervention and proved to be part of the problem, as well as other factors such as class internal and external elements which were rooted in such scenario and played a key role in the generation of such class profile.

Keywords: curriculum design, competence, motivation, education, academic behavior and development, empathy, student and class profile.

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