Science in Schools: case study from Serbia dr Zorana Kurbalija Novicic Tamara Pantelic Centre for Science and Art Promotion Serbia.

Science in Schools: case study from Serbia

dr Zorana Kurbalija NovicicTamara Pantelic

Centre for Science and Art Promotion Serbia

EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM ,SERBIA-3.578 elementary and high schools-656.000 students-50.000 teachers

Not-up-to date equipment

30 students/class

300EUR average salary/ teacher

Theoretically based curricula

3.3% VAT

The frame of implementation of science in schools-Serbian scenario

SCIENCE IN SERBIA-12.500 researchers-16 Universities-15 Institutes 0.34%

VAT

Semi-closed scientific community

Low motivation among researchers

No-existence of institutional coverage

Consequences: present status

Students are forced (due to very rigid school system and not-up-to-date curricula) to learn only facts without getting functional knowledge which they will be able to use in solving practical real-life problems

Disinterest of young people to gain new knowledge or to implement some newly acquired skills into function (to solve some practical problem)

Young people shows lack of self-confidence and is not ready to get involved into a labor market

Young people also do not show any interest in pursuing academic careers.

-The situation has deteriorated because of the economic and financial crisis followed by high unemployment rate (26,5% among the youth until 30 yrs of age) and increased public debt of a country. These economic problems, combined with corruption and labour unrest, are the reasons why more and more young educated people possessing knowledge and technical skills prefer to emigrate or to continue their studies abroad (especially in EU countries) and not return, thus effectively leaving Serbia

Our action -main ideas• We are maintained set of actions which are meant to improve a

quality of education system through implementation of innovative educational models into rigid and robust education platform presented in Serbia

• The focus will be moved from learning the facts with an aim to memorize, to learning functional links between facts with an aim to understand the causalities between them. In that way the student will be able to use the knowledge in order to solve problems and to create new solutions.

• The better education system will produce the high quality students with armed with functional knowledge, self-esteem, skills and potential to be involved in competitive conditions in STEM field. In our opinion, such approach will consequently increase the transit from STEM academia to entrepreneurship.

• The main question that we aim to answer are: How to attract young students to STEM?, How to create a functional knowledge? How to implement acquired functional knowledge in solving

problems?

Specific objectives • To make scientific and technological careers (STEM) more attractive to

young students• To start an implement of proposed innovative platforms and methods in

educational curricula and monitoring of implementation and outcomes• To make young people work with open-access educational resources and

become familiar with the use of science media as a way of informal learning

• To foster sustainable and cross-cutting interaction between the different interested partners: government, education system, research institutions and other establishments, industry, Civil Society Organisations (CSOs).

• To make a link between functional knowledge and final knowledge application

• To foster the entrepreneurial way of thinking• Start to create conditions that foster serendipity in education.• - To avoid the brain-drain talents from SEE region• - To acknowledge relevance of gender balance and dimension in research

Methodology ran by individual enthusiast!

To conclude…

• Strong network of researchers involved in science promotion (500 researcher, 50 research institutions)

• Science in regular school curricula dependent of teacher interest in science

• Children are highly motivated to do the science experiments but has no possibilities except during different outreach activities (Festivals, Science days, Researchers Night)

• No institutional coverage for science involvement in schools• Presently running a Researchers Night EU Funded since 2011• Science festival Belgrade since 2007• Submitted project under call HORIZON2020• 200 elementary and high school teachers under ODS

programs and Tempus and Erasmus projects

[email protected]

Thank you for attention!