250 schools from Arica to Punta Arenas will be assessed between August 20th and September 7th and the Institute will be responsible for the application of the seventh version of PISA.

The Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) is a triennial international survey which was created by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in the year 2000 and aims to evaluate education systems worldwide by testing the skills and knowledge of 15-year-old students in the fields of science, mathematics and reading.

This year, about 82 countries are participating and receive an opportunity to compare their students´ performance on a global scale and to improve their own education systems both in comparison to other countries, and in relation to previous results. In Chile, the authority in charge of the Program is the Chilean Education Quality Assurance Agency.

“This is a survey that has consequences for education worldwide. This is why it is so important. Chile will apply the tests this year, and in 2019, we will have the results,” explained Dr. Enrique Hinostroza, the director of the UFRO Institute of Educational Computer Science (IIE).

At the same time, this is a mayor challenge for the Institute, since it requires high operating and monitoring standards, and in this field the IIE has repeatedly shown its capabilities, which have been put to the test during the Education Quality Measurement System (SIMCE) tests in the south of Chile, the Diagnostic National Assessment for Initial Teacher Training in the whole country and the International Computer and Information Literacy Study (ICILS).

“We have been part of a national tender and our previous experience was the crucial point that allowed us to take up this new challenge. During three weeks, children born between May 2002 and April 2003 will be tested in different educational establishments over the country. The first two weeks will be for the regular application of the tests and the third week will be for complementary applications for students who were not able to attend the first time," he adds.

APPLICATION

Not only students of scientific and humanistic establishments are considered, but also the ones for technical education, since the objective is to measure the capabilities of all 15-year old teenagers. All of them should have the same level of knowledge.

“The assessment is applied to a nationally representative sample of students, which allows us to know the status of the Chilean education system as a whole. Unlike SIMCE, in which each student of each establishment gets tested, this test gives a national result. A total of ten thousand students will be assessed, also with participation of the parents, teachers, and principals, who will complete questionnaires that contain multiple sections,” he stated.

The PISA tests are computer-based. The software can be uploaded to a removable device that will be connected to the schools´ computers, so the students will be able to answer the set of questions completely digitally. In order to ensure the success of the software, a team of 300 professionals, distributed from north to south, has been put together. They will be responsible for the application of the tests in each establishment.

PISA tries to make a more systematic analysis of the factors that influence the educational results. Based on the results, the OECD publishes a series of articles, analyzing the results in order to identify a relation between what students have learned and their study habits, the teachers´ characteristics, educational establishments, etc.

The researcher who is working at the Institute for Bio- and Geosciences (IBG) of the Forschungszentrum Jülich in Germany, as well as at the Institute for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Dynamics (IBED) of the University of Amsterdam in the Netherlands, shared his knowledge in his fourth visit at the UFRO.

The links BIOREN-UFRO has with prestigious world-class research centers remain intact. The recent visit of Dr. Roland Bol, who is working at the Institute for Bio- and Geosciences (IBG) of the Forschungszentrum Jülich (Germany), as well as at the Institute for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Dynamics (IBED) at University of Amsterdam (Netherlands), is proof of that.

The main research topics are biogeochemistry, soil sciences and environmental sciences, and during his fourth visit at the UFRO, Dr. Bol provided his expertise and knowledge in the field of research he is working on, which are complex biogeochemical processes that occur in the interface between soil, water and air, and in agricultural ecosystems, especially in the studies Dr. Paola Durán and Dr. Milko Jorquera are working on, and which are also linked with Antarctic bacteria.

“They have taken samples of Antarctic soils, an extreme environment, and we are investigating the composition of these soils more detailed and continue studying microbial ecology microorganisms applied in that environment,” said the researcher.

Dr. Bol is one of the first international experts who is collaborating with the Network for Extreme Environments Research (NEXER) and together with Dr. Maria de la Luz Mora, director of BIOREN-UFRO, he is advancing in the field of isotopes, which are molecules that are marked at the molecular level, with the aim of finding out which is the fate of carbon in soils, the atmosphere, plants, etc.

Written by: Lorena Espinoza Arévalo
Vice-rectorate for Research and Graduate Studies

The Universidad de La Frontera is one of four regional universities of the U.S.-Chile University Partnerships Program, a competitive initiative that supports the growth of institutional internationalization strategies of the benefiting educational establishments.

The institutional project is organized by the Vice-rectorate for Academic Affairs and will strengthen the institutional internationalization strategy by ascribing to a U.S.-Chile University Partnerships Program that will allow the Universidad Católica de la Santísima Concepción, Universidad Bío-Bío, Universidad Austral de Chile and Universidad de La Frontera to strengthen their comprehensive internationalization strategies by opting for the best methods in that field, under the guidance of the experience of U.S. universities.

Dr. Gloria Rodriguez, Vice-rector for Academic Affairs, confirmed that earning this project is part of the institution´s aim to advance to perfection regarding the internationalization strategies. She pointed out: “Being part of this program allows us to learn from the best and to develop a comprehensive view on internationalization that includes dimensions such as institutional management, administration, curriculum, faculty policies, student mobility, innovation and research. All of that covered in a systematic and transversal manner, developing the institutional capacities that are necessary for going beyond our borders.”

The U.S.-Chile University Partnerships Program will be extended for eight months and divided into three parts: 1) establishments that have one basic line of current internationalization strategies in Chilean universities; 2) training applied by the American Councils and U.S. experts in order to improve the guidelines for internationalization; 3) strategy implementation, mentoring and guidance.

Dr. Pamela Leal, director of the International Affairs Office at the Universidad de La Frontera, explained: “This initiative will benefit institutional relations in higher education and especially the researchers and teachers who will have the opportunity to create new networks for academic collaboration and exchange for joint projects.”

After opening the doors for academic exchange of undergraduate and postgraduate teachers and students and in order to strengthen research, the Spanish language program for students of Heilongjiang University (China) is a concrete step towards internationalization and an important result of this alliance.

In August 2017, a committee of the Universidad de La Frontera, composed of Ana Moraga, the former Vice-rector for Undergraduate Affairs; Roberto Araya, the former director of Libraries and Information Resources; Pamela Leal, the director of the International Affairs Office; and Qingjun Wu, the UFRO advisor on relations with China, went to China in order to establish the bases for a cooperation agreement with Heilongjiang University and Tianjin Agricultural University.

As a result of the work and the established alliance, Lu Xiaoduan, the Spanish teacher of the Faculty of Western languages and director of the Spanish Department at Heilongjiang University, came to the Andrés Bello Campus. The purpose of her visit was to carry out an international Spanish course for students of that institution.

The Program is scheduled for the first semester of 2019 and shall be the start of Chinese students coming to our institution and of the creation of Spanish language programs that permit to learn the Spanish language skills that are necessary in order to participate in other classes. Dr. Pamela Leal, director of the International Affairs Office, commented that this program contains “intensive Spanish language classes in order to strengthen oral and written skills, thematic classes on Chilean culture in order to achieve real convergence, and field trips to learn about the Chilean identity and to get to know the touristic attractions of this region.”

The idea is that the students stay for ten months. “The first period of five months will focus on strengthening the Spanish language skills and the second semester on the possibility to choose general training electives,” Dr. Pamela Leal, who sees this initiative as part of the strategic management for internationalization of this institution, added.

GREAT OPPORTUNITY

For Lu Xiaoduan, the director of the Spanish Department at Heilongjiang University, coming to Chile has been an excellent opportunity to expand her experience regarding the language and culture. “We are highly interested. Since the Spanish language is advancing a lot in China, and since we know that it is an internationally important language, it is a great opportunity for me to support this link with the UFRO and that our students will be able to come here to learn this language,” she commented.

ACTIVITIES

In accordance with this cooperation agreement, during the week of her visit, Lu Xiaoduan carried out a series of activities that allowed her to get to know the university, its authorities and the offer of each faculty, with the objective of exploring new fields of collaboration. During her stay, she visited Pucon Campus and presented her country’s pedagogical model in education to UFRO students of the Master´s Program in Education.
“Besides, I have been developing a workshop on Chinese culture and touristic resources with undergraduate students, and two workshops on didactics for Spanish language teaching, protocol and Chinese culture with the teachers of the UFRO´s Language Coordination Center,” she explained.

For Margot Godoy, the coordinator of that unit, this rapprochement is absolutely necessary: “We managed to define the details of the program and made some adjustments regarding the needs of the future students, but we also put together a relevant training program at the Language Coordination Center, as part of the continuous improvement with an important commitment.”

Written by: Pamela Carrasco
Communications Office