Abstract
Results of the worldwide PISA study in science performance from past years (2009, 2012 and 2015) show that Czech pupils are placed in the OECD average, whereas some countries with similar cultural and historical background are statistically significantly above it as well as above the results of the Czech Republic. As an example, Estonia, Poland and Slovenia belong to these countries and therefore they were chosen for the presented comparative study. The study focuses on comparison of national curricula of these countries,especially on fundamental aspects important for physics education at lower secondary schools. The study highlights the comparison of teaching content and learning outcomes in physics, interdisciplinary education and cross-curricula subjects, educational methods and assessment and field-specific key competences. One of the most evident differences that this study has detected is in the level of autonomy that the curricular documents give schools in deciding what the learning process will look like. This result as well as other findings will be discussed in the paper.
Highlights
In our hectic information age, social demands on education are rapidly changing
That is the reason why thorough analysis and discussion should precede every curriculum revision, containing a study of already existing models used in culturally close countries. This paper provides such a study focused on comparison between Czech Republic, Estonia, Poland and Slovenia based on analysis of physics-related curriculum documents in these countries at lower secondary level
While Poland and Slovenia have a fixed number of physics lessons and in Estonia, the guaranteed number of lessons could be increased by disposable ones, the Czech curriculum allocates time only for the whole educational area Humans and Nature — because of that, the time allotment for physics may significantly vary at different schools
Summary
In our hectic information age, social demands on education are rapidly changing. Ongoing automation and upcoming massive digitization (known as Industry 4.0) are leading some professions to extinction, while some are made indispensable. Educational systems of developed countries try to face this challenge by supporting the trend of teaching pupils to think critically and solve problems instead of memorizing facts. An opportunity to make curriculum changes is opening in the Czech Republic, where the basic educational document, Framework Educational Programme, will undergo potentially significant revisions. That is the reason why thorough analysis and discussion should precede every curriculum revision, containing a study of already existing models used in culturally close (and successful) countries. This paper provides such a study focused on comparison between Czech Republic, Estonia, Poland and Slovenia based on analysis of physics-related curriculum documents in these countries at lower secondary level. We analyse documents influencing the mainstream of pupils’ population, i.e. we do not deal with the modifications of curriculum for e.g. gifted pupils, pupils with special needs or national minorities
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