Key Competences And Academic Achievement In Mexican High School Technological Education

Abstract

The general purpose of the study was to determine the relation between key competences and academic achievement in technological high school students in the state of Nuevo Leon. This dissertation was based in the contributions and investigations made from the approach of one of the contemporary theories of human capital. Human capital is the result of three fundamental aspects, recognized in the contemporary literature as key competences. These key competences are language, formal reasoning and mathematical skills. This study was a secondary data analysis. The dependant variable was academic achievement, represented by the GPA. The independent variables were the key competences, represented by verbal abilities, the capacity for mathematics learning and formal reasoning, measured trough an standardized test delivered by COSNET and applied to all the appliers for enrollment in the technological education system in the state of Nuevo Leon (DGETI). The sample were first year students enrolled in DGETI schools in the state of Nuevo Leon that applied for the enrollment evaluation for high school in January 2006. The final sample includes a number of 1610 students. Several descriptive and inferential procedures were performed for the data processing. Test of univariate and multivariate normality were conducted. A confirmatory analysis of first order validated the model factors for the exogenous sub-scales. A confirmatory analysis from the factorial measure model of key competences and an evaluation of the structural modeling trough the structural equation modeling (SEM) were conducted. The results of this research study showed that only two of the factors, verbal ability and mathematics ability, were validated in the measurement model. These key competences explain academic achievement. Verbal ability is the key competence that best explained academic achievement.