Astronomy in the Spanish Pre-University Educational System: The Particular Case of the Canary Islands

The purpose of this study was to analyze the spread of astronomy contents throughout the Spanish pre-university educative system as stated in the curricula established by law. Possible contents of Astronomy were first classified in groups and then looked after in the official curricula of the different subjects throughout the Spanish pre-university system. Results show that Astronomy contents are present through all compulsory education in the subjects Knowledge of the Natural, Social and Cultural Environment and Natural Sciences. In the last years of compulsory education some of astronomy contents are beginning to be present in non compulsory subjects which range from humanities to science subjects. Teachers which belong to humanities or science departments are graduated in very different subjects, and thus most of them lack a scientific background in Astronomy contents. Astronomy contents are not seen only as science contents, but they are given a multidisciplinary character in the curriculum established by the law. This character is not taken into account in the teachers' training for any of the educational stages. Thus it is necessary to train teachers of all educative stages in the corresponding conceptual contents. This training should contain the point of view of physics in the multidisciplinary view, without forgetting the professional perspective of the teachers to whom it is directed. For example, it is necessary to understand the scientific models from a historic point of view, to understand their consequences on the science of the time and on the present science. In this training, once conceptual contents are understood, it is possible to tackle the needs of teachers in school, with procedure contents and didactic proposals. A didactic proposal of something the teacher does not know is of no use to him. (Contains 6 tables, 3 footnotes, and 1 note.) [This paper was published in: T. J. Mahoney (Ed.), Communicating Astronomy (pp. 147-152). La Laguna, Spain: Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias.]