Some information on ICT in science education in Poland

 

1.     The structure of recent educational system in Poland

 

The reform of the educational system in Poland has been introduced in 1999. Nowadays, the Polish educational system consists of:

·        primary school (6 grades, age 7 – 13),

·        lower secondary school – gymnasium (3 years,  age 13 – 16),

·        upper secondary school - “lyceum” (3 years, 16 – 19),

·        university.

The scheme of the above educational structure in Poland is shown in the figure below:

 

 

2.     The curricula of science and computer science in the primary and secondary school

 

During the first years of the primary school, one teacher is responsible for teaching everything within one subject (integrated teaching). There is a “block teaching” in older grades (4 – 6) which means that nature subjects (but including also geography) are grouped into one called “science” (3 hours/week/year). At this educational level ICT elements are poorly represented in the existing curricula. We can find only some general remarks as, that "pupils should be able to use ICT and find information in different sources, among others in the Internet".

 

In gymnasium and in the upper secondary school (lyceum) students become acquainted with particular science disciplines separately, e.g. chemistry, physics and biology (3 hours/week/subject during three years) and they participate also in the so-called “interdisciplinary paths” – integrated activities (for example ecological, health, media and culture paths).

 

Besides, at the gymnasium level students are exposed to 2 hours a week of obligatory subject “computer science”, which is called in Poland “informatyka”. The curricula of this subject include the following issues:

1.     Computer in the human life.

2.     Work with the computer.

3.     Utility software (graphics editors, text editors, spreadsheets, databases).

4.     Multimedia sources of information.

5.     Algorithms.

6.     Simulation and modelling.

It is interesting to note, that this curriculum does not include the activities of students aimed at the competencies of measuring and controlling, based on using sensors and special software for collecting and evaluation of experimental data, what in my opinion is very important in science education!

 

But, as far as physics curricula (20 all together) at the gymnasium level are concerned, I would like to stress that only 10% among 10 studied examples of curricula contain defined topics related to applications of ICT tools and methods in physics education. In 20% of curricula there are no links to ICT applications and in the remaining examples only some general remarks that ICT should be used in teaching physics can be found.  But, there is national core curriculum introducing ICT in all subject matters and particular curricula can be developed individually by teachers providing that they are in agreement with the corresponding core curriculum.

 

In spite of the use of  international software (localised), as MicroSoft package (MS Office, Word, Spreadsheet (MSExcel) and PowerPoint) the teachers can have access to the  Polish software, as:

Edu ROM - science (physics, chemistry, biology) electronic textbooks for grades 5 and 6 of primary school and grades 1, 2 and 3 of lower secondary school (gymnasium), published by the Young Digital Poland,

ELI - interface and software for data collecting and processing for science experiments, published by ELBOX,

Chemistry with elements of ecology - multimedia textbook for lower secondary school and Physics - multimedia software for grades 1 and 2 of lower secondary school, published by Wydawnictwa Szkolne i Pedagogiczne.

After gymnasium the students are obliged to pass a special reference test, which is evaluating their ability to apply mathematics in science disciplines, but after upper secondary school there is the state certificate exam, conducted by a special state commission. Positive results of this examination will allow students to study at the higher schools.

 

3.     The use of ICT in science education at the upper secondary school

 

The educational school system reform is just starting at the upper secondary schools in Poland  this year. There is also a lot of new curricula (up to now 20) accepted for use in schools by the National Ministry of Education for teaching physics at two levels: basic (13) and advanced (7). The common feature of these curricula is adding to the school tasks extra position The use of ICT methods for modelling and experimental results analysis. It is inspiring and encouraging for authors of textbooks, editors and computer companies which would like to create the specialised software devoted to ICT applications in physics education. We are already observe the first effects of this process. There are two new CD-ROMs available on the educational market edited recently by the main Polish publishers: Wydawnictwa Szkolne i Pedagogiczne (Warsaw) and Zamkor (Cracow), but they contain mostly software for simulations and for processing the data introduced manually by the user.

However, we would like to encourage our science teachers to use Microcomputer Based Laboratory tools and methods for performing real on-line experiments in their school practice. Fortunately, for example at the Centre of Informatics Education and Application of Computers in Warsaw we can buy the hardware and Polish version of COACH 5 software (elaborated by CMA, Amsterdam) for data-acquisition, data-processing and for modelling.

 

Furthermore, I would like to add, that due to the National Ministry of Education project all secondary schools in Poland are actually equipped with at least 10 computers with indispensable peripheries, but unfortunately there are mostly used by the computer science teachers and only sometimes by science teachers.

Generally, the average number of students per computer in all types of schools is 35 (as of July 2001) and most computers are located in computer laboratories*

 

I would like also to mention, that nowadays most of schools in our country is connected to the Internet and students can use the educational resources of Polish educational web-sites as for example: www.eduseek.pl and www.wiw.pl

In the evenings or during the weekends students may have access to the Internet resources also at their homes or in a special places called in Poland “Internet Cafes”. 

 

Finally, I have to report, that  teacher training on the use of ICT in science education is supported  by the National Ministry of Education and there are also some important local initiatives of Teacher Training Centres.

In addition, for example Intel  has undertaken interesting initiative - Teach to the Future Initiative (for teachers of all subjects, including science).

 

4.     The use of ICT in science education by science teachers (results of questionnaires)

 

It is involved in part of http://www.phys.uni.torun.pl/~pdf Collaboration/STEDE path on: Questionnaires.

 

Acknowledgements

·        I would like to express my sincere thanks to  Jerzy Dalek, advisor of Computer Science Department at the  Ministry of Education and Sport in Poland for providing me with some valuable data.