Janez Vogrinc

A mentor’s aid in developing the competences of teacher trainees

The induction period is a very important time in the career of a teacher and has a long‐term influence on the teacher’s professional development, efficacy, job satisfaction and the length of his/her career. One of the key roles in this period is played by the trainee’s mentor. This paper presents the results of the extensive project ‘Partnership of Faculties and Schools’, carried out at the Pedagogical Faculty, University of Ljubljana, with the financial support of the European Social Fund and the Slovenian Ministry of Education, Science and Sport. We studied an induction project involving 361 teacher trainees and 331 mentors. The study reveals the trainees’ expectations towards their mentors and the mentors’ and trainees’ evaluations of how the mentor aids a teacher trainee in developing their competences.

Action research in schools – an important factor in teachers’ professional development

Quality performance of the increasingly important professional role of the teacher requires a continued learning and professional growth of every individual. Action research represents one of the important factors in teachers’ professional development, in particular when it is designed as a collaborative process involving teachers and researchers. This dimension of cooperation has been developed as part of the project “Partnership between Faculties and Schools”, which also included an empirical study presented in this article. The survey has shown that among teachers, newcomers and experienced teachers are the most willing to participate in research work. Irrespective of the stage of their professional development, teachers are mainly prepared to be involved in introducing the findings and improvements into school practices, while communicating research results to wider public, preparing techniques and instruments for data collection and writing research reports rank among the least interesting activities for teachers’ involvement.

The Criteria for Evaluating the Quality of the Science Textbooks

Textbooks are important sources from which students obtain knowledge. The inadequate and inconsistent scientific knowledge presented in science textbooks can negatively affect students’ conceptions. Different learning theories should be applied when preparing educational material, especially textbooks. Research shows that an adequate combination of both, visual and verbal, aspects of presenting science concepts is ideal. Visual-verbal learning allows students to reconcile the two modes and compare carefully the information available in the picture with the explanation in the text. Research also shows that around 90 % of students learn science using some form of text, but important conclusions are that science texts do not significantly contribute to quality learning in science education. Science textbooks demand that the learner integrates quite complicated science concepts, together with language abilities (scientific vocabulary and syntax and also capability of reading, writing and oral communicating), visualisation materials (different images, symbols, comic-strip style, etc.) and format in the science text. This chapter also focuses on the analysis of the data gathering techniques and instruments which are used in the qualitative research, especially the text analyse, which is the basis for the in-depth science textbook content analysis. A special emphasis of this chapter is also to present the criteria which serve the purpose of finding out the quality of teaching material.

Biotechnology learning in Slovenian upper-secondary education: gaining knowledge and forming attitudes

ABSTRACT Purpose: One area of science that will increasingly influence our society is biotechnology. An increasing number of modern biotechnological applications have provoked consideration of the ethical and social issues; therefore, it is important that the public is well-informed about them. Formal education in upper-secondary schools should help students to become biotechnologically literate citizens. There is little published research data on Slovenian high-school students’ knowledge about and attitudes towards biotechnology, as well a lack of curriculum evaluation data. Methodology: This study combines two research approaches. The first part is content analysis of current upper-secondary education programmes in Slovenia, in which all curricula were reviewed about 15 selected biotechnological topics. The second part of the research focused on assessing students’ knowledge of traditional and modern biotechnology and exploring their attitudes towards modern biotechnological methods and their products. The sample included 1163 students aged 17–18 from three different types of schools located in 12 different regions of Slovenia. A questionnaire to measure knowledge and attitudes was designed. Results: The research results revealed that selected biotechnological concepts appeared most frequently in the curri- cula of bio-technical gymnasia. These students also showed the 30 highest level of knowledge and the most positive attitudes. Furthermore, a clear correlation between students’ knowledge of and attitudes towards modern biotechnology was found. On the other hand, no significant differences in attitudes to the state- ments, which dealt with ethics, were found among the students 35 involved in the research. Conclusion: Biotechnology teaching in upper-secondary education in Slovenia is obviously very diverse and dependent on the programme.