Review article

Societal expectations and the scientifically competent students

Mladen Domazet orcid.org/0000-0002-9870-9485 ; Institute for Social Research in Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia

Abstract

The article surveys the topics related to operationalisation of natural science competences in compulsory primary education. Following the introduction of the term ‘competences’ into European educational discourse, its relations with the similar concepts and the notion
of ‘scientific literacy’ are analyzed. The calls for the introduction of scientific literacy as the educational aim are shown to be the conceptual origin of the step out of the appropriation of the disciplinarily significant facts and towards the model of education as development of competences required for fulfillment of personal aspirations and societal needs. The influence of the scientific literacy drive on the development of the competence-based educational
models is surveyed, especially with respect to development of students’ attitudes towards content of science subjects. The latter is well exemplified in the competence-model operationalisation through the OECD PISA testing, where knowledge and attitudes alike
define the scientific competence. A warning is raised concerning the empirical research findings about the negative attitude of Croatian students towards the natural science subjects in the primary school curriculum.

Keywords

key competences; natural sciences; scientific literacy; compulsory education; economic role of education; motivation in education

Hrčak ID:

41693

URI

https://hrcak.srce.hr/41693

Publication date:

21.10.2009.

Article data in other languages: croatian

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