Science teachers' attitudes towards the implementation of educational standards in elementary education

Abstract

The paper presents the results of a research of the attitudes of teachers of science towards the implementation of educational standards in elementary school education. The research was carried out immediately after an in-service teacher training in the implementation of standards, organized by the Institute for the evaluation of quality of education in Serbia. Tested were four hundred teachers of geography, biology, physics and chemistry who teach in elementary schools. The results show that almost all teachers think that educational standards should be implemented in the teaching process although there are some differences between them when the subjects taught are considered. More than half the teachers think that the standards will be most beneficial to students in the domain of knowledge, assessment, personal initiative and preparation for final exams. The teachers who recognized their own personal benefit from the implementation of the standards estimate that they will be helpful in assessment, selection of teaching materials, organization of work and further professional development. However, the teachers also expect that they will face various difficulties and limitations during the implementation: problems in assessing and evaluating students' knowledge compared to the defined levels of achievement; resistance of students and parents to change; lack of technical and teaching devices; too much administration which will require a lot of time...

U radu su izneti rezultati ispitivanja mišljenja nastavnika predmeta prirodnih nauka o uvođenju obrazovnih standarda u osnovnoškolsko obrazovanje. Ispitivanje je organizovano neposredno nakon obuke nastavnika za uvođenje standarda, koju je organizovao Zavod za vrednovanje kvaliteta obrazovanja i vaspitanja na teritoriji cele Srbije. Ispitano je 400 nastavnika koji predaju geografiju, biologiju, fiziku i hemiju u osnovnoj školi. Rezultati su pokazali da gotovo svi nastavnici smatraju da je potrebno uvođenje obrazovnih standarda u nastavni proces, premda postoje razlike među njima kada se u obzir uzme predmet koji predaju. Više od polovine nastavnika smatra da će standardi najviše koristiti učenicima, i to u domenu znanja, ocenjivanja, lične inicijative i pripreme za polaganje završnog ispita. Nastavnici koji su prepoznali ličnu korist od uvođenja standarda procenjuju da će im oni pomoći u ocenjivanju učenika, odabiru nastavnih sadržaja, organizaciji rada i daljem profesionalnom razvoju. Pored toga, nastavnici očekuju da će se tokom uvođenja standarda suočavati sa različitim teškoćama i ograničenjima, kao što su: problemi u ocenjivanju i procenjivanju znanja učenika u odnosu na definisane nivoe postignuća; otpori učenika i roditelja zbog uvođenja ovih novina u nastavu; nedostatak tehničkih i nastavnih sredstava; previše administrativnih poslova koji će im oduzimati dosta vremena.