Transdisciplinary Cyber-systemic Design of Instruments to Measure Academic Performance in Middle and Higher Education Systems

This study reports a systemic cyber application with a transdisciplinary approach of a case study, through the creation of measuring instruments to improve academic performance in middle and higher education. The objective is to amend an absence of comprehensive measurement mechanisms to promote school stay in technical and vocational training, and its impact on the productive sector. Educational models themselves are not a guarantee of educational efficiency or a link between education and society. Educational lag information in many Latin American countries is evident, only 18% complete higher-level studies. To improve academic performance, it is necessary to use measurement tools related to educational contexts and their actors. To fulfil this purpose, we use a hybrid methodology of soft systems with an emphasis on cybernetics and a transdisciplinary approach. The most important findings were found a set of variables related to students (demographic, sociocultural, economic and health, academic information, learning-teaching processes, equity and academic supports, and business-university collaboration; with teachers (work and teaching experience, learning-teaching process, equity and academic supports and university-business collaboration); with employers (general information, human capital, fellows and support for fellows and collaboration university company). The instruments comprise a total of 193 contextual variables of students-teachers-employers, for which an application model was proposed (diagnosis-application-feedback) to a case study. A notion of academic performance is integrated, based on literature review and consultation with experts. It is concluded that the geocultural integration of the actors supports the management of culturally viable and organizationally sustainable solutions for the innovation of academic programs and their coevolution in the educational system.