New Perspectives in Science Education

The tradition of science education at primary and secondary level in the Czech Republic is long. However, the approach to science education has stayed almost unchanged for over 30 years. Since the current world is actually changing and evolving very fast in all of its areas and the Czech Republic is an inseparable part of the world, it‘s not possible to stagnate at the achieved science education level. However, it is necessary to realize that a certain crisis of science education is caused by the absence of clear paradigm from which it should stem. Many studies point out the problems of the scientistic approach to science which eventually leads to lack of understanding and interest about science at all levels of education. We can observe a worldwide swerve from this concept of education and focus on science themes that students could use in their future lives regardless of their eventual profession. Like most of European countries, the Czech Republic pays heed to this approach in its current curricular documents, albeit mostly just in the declaratory plane.
Apart from the requirement about changes in science curriculum contents, there is also emphasis on new methods and processes that should be used in teaching of those subjects. One of the demands is an interdisciplinary approach that would better correspond to real scientific research. There is also an emphasis on the connection between science and mathematics/ICT. EU projects focused on science education often talk about the „STEM“ approach, i.e. connecting of science to technology, engineering and mathematics, or the „STEAM“ approach that adds the „Arts“ discipline to the others, meaning that the “STEM” are also connected to the humanities. Another demand is to make the educational methods closer to methods used in science. Here, it is often talked about moving from the deductive approach to the inductive one. Because of that, constructivistic approach and IBSE is now making its mark in many areas. Research shows that use of the abovementioned methods and techniques brings positive results in science education. Therefore, changes in teaching of science are now being prepared, even in the Czech Republic.

Keywords: science education, primary and secondary education, content and methods of the curriculum, STEM and STEAM, IBSE;