Is education preparing our children and our youth for an ever-changing world? What is the international response to the challenge educational centres are facing? What are its keystones? How does it affect the what, how and why they learn? How does it affect the educational policies and their concerns?

This book intends to respond to these questions, and to provide teachers, headmasters, inspectors, government decision-makers, and families with a straightforward but comprehensive perspective on the new approach to the school curriculum in the 21st century.

That is why this book:

• Gives the reader a conceptual approach to the curriculum and its historical evolution, as well as its impact on the preparation for the future and the success of school education.
• Provides a comparative international standpoint of the new approach to the competency-based curriculum.
• From a learning point of view, addresses the concept of competence and deep learning.
• Takes into account the problems of competences from the teaching perspective, approaching their personalization through the integration of digital technologies and the essential strengthening of the teaching profession.
• Looks closely at the evaluation and addresses the concept of organizational intelligence as a strong instrument for the improvement of education, at all its organizational levels.
• Examines the situation in Spain, draws some lessons from the experience and proposes some guidelines for the future.
• Transfers all the above to several recommendations for teaches, headmasters and decision-makers. 

In brief, the book provides a clear perspective on the curriculum of the future, its amendments and all the policies and educational practices which will determine its level of success. 

Francisco López Rupérez holds a PhD in Physics. He has a wide-ranging experience in the fields of educational research, practice and policy. He is a Secondary School teacher and is currently director of the Cathedra on Educational Policies at Camilo José Cela University.

EXTRACT OF THE INDEX

1. The concept of curriculum and its relevance for the education of the future. Conceptual diversity. The curriculum as a strong instrument for the improvement of education, at all its organizational levels.
2. An international convergence on the design of the curriculum for the 21st century. Underlying keystones. Comparative international view. OECD’s design. European reference framework. The approach of the US National Research Council. The proposal of the Center for Curriculum Redesign.
3. Learning of knowledge and skills. Knowledge, competencies and abilities. Skills and values. Deep learning and transferability.
4. Teaching of knowledge and skills. Towards a personalization of learning. Digital technologies. A balanced model between centralization and decentralization.  Strengthening the teaching profession. 
5. Assessment of knowledge and skills. Why and how to assess skills. Educational assessment for the 21st century: information, knowledge and organizational intelligence. 
6. Development of the curriculum by competences: the case of Spain. International perspective. The LOE (Organic Law on Education) approach. Consolidation in the LOMCE (Organic Law for the Improvement of Educational Quality). Error analysis. Looking ahead to the future.
7. Curriculum amendments for the 21st century. The curriculum must: include contextual needs; take into account a new rationality; lean on a clear, simple and dynamic analytic framework; include the available instruments; adopt a systemic approach; pay attention to communication, and lean on quality governance.
8. RECOMMENDATIONS. To teachers. To the school’s administration. To the political decision-makers