Abstract:

The recovery or extraordinary exams in Spain are those exams students take in order to pass a subject they have failed previously. They constitute a second chance for those students who, for different reasons, could not demonstrate the acquisition of certain theoretical concepts or procedures during a semester or an academic year. Some years ago students used to take these exams in September. Since year 2015, in secondary education and also in many higher education institutions these extraordinary exams are now scheduled in July instead of in September as it used to be for decades. This change had important implications from academic and organizational perspectives. Recently national policy makers have suggested that recovery exams in July should be deleted in secondary education. As this change may be implemented during the current school year, many voices have arisen for and against the proposal. In this research the perspectives of 12 secondary education mathematics teachers are analyzed. A qualitative content analysis was carried out. This qualitative information was obtained by means of semi-structured interviews with the teachers. Results show that most of the teachers thought as recovery exams in September as the best options for students. Nevertheless, those teachers who also had management positions in the schools thought that, from an organizational perspective, taking the recovery exams in July was a better option. The deletion proposal was also questioned by some teachers from an inclusive perspective. The suppression of these exams would also imply less opportunities for those students with academic difficulties, which is seen by many teachers as a non-sense measure given the importance of inclusion in the current educational context. The main conclusion is that, from an organizational perspective, deleting these exams or taking them in July are the best options, while on the contrary, from an academic and inclusive perspective, taking these exams in September as it used to be would the best choice.

Keywords:

Recovery exams, mathematics education, educational policy, inclusive education.