Students of Primary Education Degree from two European universities: a competency-based assessment of performance in multigrade schools. Comparative study between Spain and Slovenia

In this sense, multigrade schools represent the struggle of education systems to enshrine the right of access to comprehensive education that will enable future generations to acquire and develop knowledge and skills to participate in sustainable development goals and make individual and collaborative decisions based on a commitment to human rights to transform society. Based on the above, and taking into account the declarations of the European Commission (2019), in Slovenia, and Abós (2011), in Spain, who state that from the formal curriculum, in both countries students from some universities could have access to knowledge about teaching methodology in multigrade classrooms, it is considered relevant to know whether students have had the opportunity to receive content related to this educational modality, and the extent to which students from primary schools in the aforementioned countries feel prepared to teach in multigrade environments, based on the training received. 2.Knowledge and skills for multigrade teaching The standards and criteria with which multigrade teachers must comply in order to carry out their functions demand that they master the theoretical and didactic knowledge specific to this educational modality, such as: making curricular adaptations and differentiations; implementing different teaching and grouping approaches to diversify the teaching practices; focusing on individualised teaching; implementing differentiated assessment; and organising and managing time, space and didactic resources effectively (Marland, 2004). In view of the above, teacher training is seen as an opportunity to help student teachers acquire and develop the guidelines that define the social, ethical and pedagogical expectations of teaching, and assume responsibility for their practices, contributing to the development of effective teaching methods and, consequently, to their impact on improving the quality of education (Enayati, Zameni, and Movahedi, 2016). Miller's (1991) classification, taken up by Vincent (1999), states that teaching success in multigrade classrooms is related to the mastery of six areas that address curricular, content, student, context and multigrade knowledge: (1) classroom organisation (teaching resources and learning spaces); (2) classroom management and discipline (clear classroom routines); (3) educational organisation, curriculum and assessment (adapting instruction to student needs); (4) teaching and grouping approaches; (5) self-d