Comparison of Primary Science Education in the Three EU Countries

Transcription

1 Comparison of Primary Science Education in the Three EU Countries Adriana Wiegerová 1, Monika Szimethová 2 Tomas Bata University in Zlín (Czech Republic) 1, Comenius University in Bratislava (Slovak Republic) 2 wiegerova@fhs.utb.cz, szimethova@fedu.uniba.sk Abstract During the last decade primary science education starts emerged as the one of the important research area in EU countries. The article describes the results of author s dissertation. The article describes and defines the main theoretical rationale. This article explores the primary science education in the Slovak Republic, Czech Republic and Poland. The attention is paid to the educational system in each country in the context of primary education and primary science education. The research methods employed include a comparative content analysis of the curricular documents and interview with primary teachers in these three countries. The aim of article is to define the status and structure of primary science education in curricula and teachers' views in the abovementioned countries. The outcome of this research was used to define better and more effective solutions priority for Slovakian primary science education and than for the other two countries. 1. Introduction In the present the post-modern world is surrounded by technology. Although, it begins the emphasis on the nature and caring for the natural environment. Frequently, many people are looking into each other. They are interested in and care about entertainment without incurring any effort to help to another man. Their behaviour is egocentrically, they don t thought to nature, their needs or problems. The relation between the man and nature has important value. It s necessary that children started to conscious of it. The one of the way is that pupils are learning about the nature. The pupils are received information so-called as Education package through the science education at schools. The paper focuses on primary science education in Slovakia, Czech Republic and Poland. Is provides the status of science education in the curricula of individual countries. It deals with the philosophical direction the man and nature, illustrating their relative diversity. Attention is paid to cultural literacy in the context of science education. This article is presented the state of work in natural science topics on the field with regard to natural science literacy occurring in research reports. The main aims of research were to compare the system of science education in primary school; to analyze curricular documents of science education in the countries. Through content analysis of each of the documents it wants to complete the finding, as seen in the country teaching science. The results, the data collected, is describes by authors, too. 2. Theoretical background Historically there was a lot of understanding of the man and nature, man and possibly the world. Kučírek (1995) shows in his publication the variety of philosophical thought the man and the world from the mythology, philosophy, ancient China and ancient India and Greece through the European philosophy and Christianity, or modern classical philosophy since the present. The major philosophical direction for dealing with the relationship between man and nature is an Anthropocentrism,

2 Biocentrism and theirs variants. It is important to understand and realize the "position or the position of" man and nature. "We must learn to" let the creatures to be "... and not trying to rule over them" (Seed, 1993, p. 17 In Kučírek, 1995, p. 60; Seed 1998 In Seed 1988), we must learn to think and to help solve the environmental crisis that affects all on Earth. Philosophical trends as Anthropocentrism and Biocentrism consider so-called as borderline trends. Sort of basis is sustainable development. Sustainable development is getting into schools where pupils by teachers who must have knowledge of sustainability and be able to apply and integrate into the educational process. Pupils at the primary education should be the issue of sustainable development and ecological crisis to inform the science and environmental education. The questions and issues of ecological crisis and the relationship of the man to the environment have their justification in the school systems. Horká (2005) emphases that the important of needs is to shape attitudes to the environment since the early childhood, especially with good motivation and theirs interiorize. Education is a fundamental strategy to achieve positive environmental changes for children. It is necessary that the children started to realize it. One way is that pupils are learning at the schools and teachers have get to them the knowledge about the nature and they receive that information. Education package, in particular through science education. Majerčíková (2011 In Kožuchová, et al., 2011) describes that the social studies education offer to pupil the knowledge of culture and nation where is the pupil living. The subject of social studies education (Majerčíková, 2011 In Kožuchová, et al., 2011) and science studies education (Wiegerová, 2011 In Kožuchová, et al., 2011) is the most important part of primary science education. The contribution addresses the primary science education in selected European Union countries, namely Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Poland. In recent curriculum reform took place in all three countries. Curricular reform, also reform in primary education, had become in all the three countries in recent. ISCED 1 Slovakia 6 10 years Czech Republic 6 11 years Poland 7 13 years ročník (the first degree of Elementary school) ročník (the first degree of Elementary school) ročník (Elementary school) 1. part 2. part 1. stage 2. stage class class class class Picture 1 Primary education in Slovakia, Czech Republic and Poland (from view of International Classification ISCED 1)

3 The main aim of education (authors of article means not only primary education) is that every students development own cultural literacy. Primary education (picture 1) in Slovakia is including the first four years of study in Elementary school; in Czech Republic is including the first five years of study. Educational system in Poland is definitely another. Primary education is dipartite to the two parts. First kind is first three years of integrated education and the second is subject education and it s during second three years of study (Śliwerski, 2006). 3. Methodology The subject of our research is to determine the status of science education in the primary education in Slovakia, Czech Republic and Poland. Research has qualitative comparative character. Main aim of research is analysis curricular documents from primary science view. Other aims are about attitudes of primary school teachers in every three countries. As qualitative research the authors describe several research questions, the most important of them are: What is the dissimilarity in terms characterizing science education and science literacy in the context of primary school? Which imagine have teachers of primary schools on the content of science education? How as might be more effective science education and development of science literacy in the context of primary schools in Slovakia? The research itself includes the main research method and several additional methods that require custom implementation. The main method is content analysis of curricular documents from Slovakia, Czech and Poland. The additional methods are comparative analysis and interview. Implementation of the method of selecting a sample of the research will be carried out systematically and logically. The research sample of the present research from content analysis (realised by program MAQDA10) is curricular documents touching the priority of primary education in the Slovak Republic, Czech and Poland. Science education in the country is in practice implemented in different ways. So we choose the choice of curricula on two levels nationals level and schools level. However, these are all pertinent documents by the International Standard Classification of Education ISCED 1 below, which is primary education or first stage of basic education Criterias for content analysis are: 1. documents are obligatory in the country; 2. documents include in state stage of documents; 3. by the international classification ISCED are ranges into category ISCED 1 a. must by comparitable with Slovak level of ISCED 1; b. include the elements of science education. 4. must be comparable with the level of Slovak ISCED 1.ISCED 1. The authors compared the following documents: 1. for Slovak republic:

4 a. Milenium The national program of education in Slovak republic for following years; b. State educational program for the 1st degree of Elemantary school in Slovak republic. ISCED 1 Primary education; c. Appendix State educational program Curriculum; 2. for Czech republic: 3. for Poland: a. The national program of educational development in Czech republic. White book; b. Framework of educational program of basic education; a. The basic of educational program for preprimary and primary education. Part 1: Preprimary and Primary Education; b. The basic of educational program for preprimary and primary education. Part 5. Science Education in Primary school and High school. For content analysis the authors choosed the program MAXQDA10 and then formulated the following codes categories: aim of education content of education competence performance of standard definition of primary education definition of science education cross-curricular subjects relations. 4. Results and Discussion The comparing of content analysis of primary science education in every three countries shows, that primary science education, also primary edacation is similar, not the same. The educational field has internally divided into educational fields in Czech Republic, which is the difference between the education in the Slovak and Czech. In Slovakia, the curricular is dipartite into educational areas, sectional themes and then in content of curricula. In Czech Republic, curricular documents include the educational areas and sectional themes as well, but also there is educational fields and content of curricula as the performance of standard. In both cases, students receive the curriculum through subjects (Science and Homeland studies (as the social studies) in Slovak, Basics of sciences, Science, regional studies in Czech). When comparing specific themes and subject matter, we can conclude that there is not much difference in the curriculum as a whole. The author believe that the major influence on the similarity of the curriculum had a common history of both countries, long-term "identical" thinking about the world. In Poland the curricular documents, both equally represented on the content of primary science education, consists of the first and third year of primary education. Content is created by way though not typical themes, but the performance standards (what a child should know at the end of the year). Comparison of the content of science education in Slovakia and Poland as well as in the Czech Republic and Poland is possible to see the differences. Disparity is possible to show in the actual distribution of educational content, but also in the actual design of science learning into practice. In Poland, more attention is paid into issues concerning the environment and the surroundings and "themes" of content are increasingly interlinked. They are designed to be easier to look at them and applied to cross-curricular learning process.

5 The polish documents are the most visible cyclicality of the curriculum of all three countries. The content of education on the subject is gradually mounting up years (from the simple knowledge to more complicate), even though it is still not initiate in documents as "standards" that students have to get. In all documents is missing the sciences curriculum designed especially for talented students and there is missing the environmental education. The authors of article describes the results into the following codes categories which were used in content analysis: aim of education were incorporated the therm focused on general education. The authors designed the general aim for all three countries: the pupil has obtained the elementary knowledge of the world (system functioning of world), live, nature, society and culture, where he/she is a member and he/she is living; content of education (curriculum) is reflected in various topics. The structure in each country is different, as we described upper; competence is in all documents defined as the ability, which pupils have get during the education; performance of standard is represented in almost every documents. This category standard knowledge means that students have get a knowledge norm durring the study. Although the performance standards such as the polish documents are absent. We should say the different standards are limited in specific topics (science). This is comparable with the Czech Republic, where is the part of the curriculum for us and awaiting outcomes considered as performance standards. definition of primary education the education system in each country is different. Although it is possible define the primary education by authors as: - The education up to the preprimary and family education. It is a obligatory area in the education for children in the country. Through the primary education are developing key competencies based on the aims of supporting the knowledge (specific curriculum). definition of science education education is very similar in all three countries and all documents. The analysis shows that the aim of science education is applicable to all three countries as following: - To develop the knowledge of science, understanding to the nature of the child in the natural environment. Education should be implemented in a natural environment, when it is permitted by the location of the school. cross-curricular subjects relations the greatest emphasis on cross-curricular emphasis is placed on the documents from the Czech Republic. As the Science (as subject curriculum) contains only the content of education on this subject, but it is appropriate that this document is not referred to this category. 5. Conclusion This article is divided into two parts. A theoretical part shortly describes the philosophical trends, hierarchy of term as science education. The results could be use in every country and could help improve science primary education in country.

6 The article contains the basic views and structure of primary education in Slovakia, Czech and Poland. Important is know the structure and system of education (especially science education) in every countries for three points: Ad1 for knowing other variants of the same term ; Ad2 for making the good research especially to use content and comparative analysis; Ad3 for understanding what and maybe why have another country and can use it for our benefit. What else could help for better understanding the structure and system of education in another country? Why is knowing important? Not only for Slovakian primary science education and us, but for other countries and generations it could help with nature, cultural, ecological crisis, etc. The measurements of the International studies PISA and TIMSS is monitored and recorded into science literacy levels achieved before only as the desired "order of ranking (Liessmann, 2008, p. 52) in the international representation than the level of science literacy and science education and how it came to. PISA and TIMSS shows different position of these countries and my question is: Why? What is different in education and what teachers teaching at schools? This and more questions are emerging to the fore. In the end of research we believe in continuing research. References [1] Horká, H Ekologická dimenze výchovy a vzdělávání ve škole 21. století. Brno : MSD, p. ISBN [2] Kučírek, J Ekofilozofia včera, dnes a zajtra. Nitra : Vysoká škola pedagogická, p. ISBN [3] Liessmann, P. K Teorie nevzdělanosti. Omyly společnosti vědění. Praha: Academia, p. ISBN [4] Majerčíková, J Diagnostikovanie žiakov v spoločenskovednom vzdelávaní. In Kožuchová, M., Gavora, P., Wiegerová, A., Majerčíková, J., Hirschnerová, Z Pedagogická diagnostika v primárnom vzdelávaní. Bratislava: SPN Mladé letá, s. r. o. 134 p.. ISBN [5] Seed, J Za hranicemi antropocentrismu. In Myslet jako hora. Prešov, In Kučírek, J Ekofilozofia včera, dnes a zajtra. Nitra : Vysoká škola pedagogická, p. ISBN [6] Seed, J Beyond Anthropocentrism. From Seed, J., Macy, J., Naess, A., Fleming, P Thinking Like a Mountain Towards a Council of All Beings [online]. Philadelphia PA : New Society Publishers, s. Retrieved December 17, 2011, From: [7] Śliwerski, B Pedagogika tom 2 pedagogika wobec edukacji, polityki oświatowej i badań naukowych. Gdańsk: GWP. 523 p. ISNB [8] Wiegerová, A Diagnostikovanie žiakov v prírodovednom vzdelávaní. In Kožuchová, M., Gavora, P., Wiegerová, A., Majerčíková, J., Hirschnerová, Z Pedagogická diagnostika v primárnom vzdelávaní. Bratislava: SPN Mladé letá, s. r. o. 134 p. ISBN