DR Bogomir NovakEducational Research InstituteLjubljana, Slovenia

Implementing the Quality Teaching Idea in the Slovenian Schools

Paper presented at the European Conference on Educational Research, University College Dublin, 7-10 September 2005

Abstract An evaluation study (in further text ES) Novak, B. (et al., 2002): “Significance of introducing new learning, thinking and teaching styles in schools with a view of easing the mind of pupils in nine-year primary schools” looked into the question of quality teaching and learning. The purpose of the ES was to gather differentiated views on overtaxed pupils against the background of prevailing opinion that the Slovenian school is effect-oriented and overtaxing. This ES investigated whether teachers by using various styles in practice make it any easier for their pupils to achieve the objectives of their subject. Our research instruments included observation of classes of the three eight-year and three nine-year primary schools, questionnaires for teachers and interviews with teachers and headmasters. A small sample of nine-year schools was split into an experimental and a control group. In the first group there were nine-year primary schools whereas the latter comprised of the eight-year schools. The starting point of the ES was the position that quality teaching would gain grounds if it contains characteristics of the transformation paradigm as opposed to the traditional transmissive paradigm. The main hypothesis was that teachers through the use of transformative teaching style have most impact on transformative, personally significant, experience learning since teachers thus encourage pupils to cooperate with each other when looking for new data and their representation.

Most teachers have not been educated and trained in terms of complex professionalism, i.e. how to acquire a complex body of knowledge, grow personally, understand globalisational trends and actively participate in the environment. In future teachers will undoubtedly have to be educated and trained how to achieve the complex objectives of the quality school.

To some extent teachers' education does not follow the trend of school development in Europe nor does it follow the objectives of the 1999 curricular reform. Factors positively influencing teacher education include first their self-motivation and secondly, flexible organisation of school work (in contrast with the rigid timetable system), help of colleagues, co-operation in a team of teachers teaching at the same level, understanding school management, possibility of extended periods of study leave, susceptibility to didactic alternatives and innovations. After curricular reform the Slovenian schools have reached various levels of quality teaching. Some schools are still deeply rooted in the transmissive model, others have started to introduce the transformational one whereas some have already set the example by having the transformational model fully operational. Teachers have more tasks to do and roles to play. Consequently, some pupils are still overloaded because non-reflective reproductive learning still prevails. Nevertheless, 2003 TIMSS research results indicate that considering the global trends Slovenian pupils will have to learn mathematics and science more creatively and gladly.

Key words: motivation, transformation paradigm, transmissive school, transformative school, interactive communication, teaching and learning styles.

1. Teacher motivation for learning, teaching and education

Curricular reform of Slovenian primary and secondary schools - completed in 1999 - has not changed only subject matters but also objectives and methods of teaching. Differentiated use of teaching methods - as applied in the Western Europe - is gaining ground in Slovenia, too. At the helm is teaching for creative, quantum, interactive, personally significant, holistic, lifelong learning. Teachers acquire and accept new roles because they are no longer only transmitters of knowledge but are becoming facilitators of pupils' personality development by encouraging them to develop their curiosity, choosing the learning and thinking styles appropriate to their personal capabilities, by facilitating their understanding of the subject matter; mentors and colleagues in carrying out projects and independent investigators. Thus a teacher has turned into a multi -functional personality with multifunctional motives.

Surprisingly, there are not many debates about teachers' motives for education and learning, especially because every curriculum and syllabus emphasises what a pupil should be encouraged to achieve new knowledge and skills. Long term knowledge anchored in the long term memory results from self-motivation of all participants in education. This paper is a contribution to discussion about some factors which lead to the (un)successful pupils in school.1 We try to answer the following two questions: 1) how to limit or abolish these factors and 2) is it possible to have a school that satisfies all educational needs of all participants.

Nowadays development of science and new technologies calls for constant curricular changes: new contents are added and linked with other disciplines, methods and objectives are changed. For that reason teachers change the concept and method of teaching and their own roles without having properly updated their knowledge. In the past teachers were successful if they transferred the study matter in its entirety. Today teachers are expected to be innovative, to know how to animate their pupils through teaching for learning. Teachers therefore need additional qualifications.

Motivation is often described as an internal tendency, need, wish or demand. It is a force activating and directing a person’s behaviour (goal-oriented behaviour) (Kleinginna, P., JR & Kleinginna, A., 1981). Franken (1994) added to the definition of motivation characteristics of keeping the direction, enthusiasm, intensity and duration of behaviour. Motivation in the broadest sense, i. e. encouragement for activity, comprises extrinsic, intrinsic and interactive communicational motives.2 Recently, the latter have been on the rise since they advocate school as a learning organisation.

Maslow’s hierarchy of needs is the following: 1) physiological needs, 2) safety needs (order and structure), 3) belongingness & love needs, 4) esteem needs with self-respect, 5) needs to know & understand, 6) aesthetic needs, 7) self-actualisation (also self-fulfilment or personal growth) (Maslow, 1954). The last two motives matter most in the out of school activities since they are distinctly internal. Nevertheless they are conditioned by the first five types of motives.

Table 1: Transitional forms of motivation

Teachers' motivation is defined in terms of external (or extrinsic), internal (or intrinsic) and interactive motivation. Selfmotivation (with allusion to Maslow) is the deepest level of internal motivation (point 3). Table 1 indicates that these three types of motivation are connected in a circle. This means that once new tasks occur interactive motivation turns into a new external one. At each stage it is possible to lose motivation to work (i. e. in cases of stagnating, burning out, illness or before searching a new job). In the chart this is shown with a tangent pointing away from the circle and a top stage signed with numbers from 0 to 6.

2. Internal motivation for personally important work and learning

4. Interactive motivation for interactive communication, team work and cooperative learning

1-5 External motivation for changes

3. Self-motivation withselfactualization

0 – 6 motivation leading away from changes

The changes in education imply that the motives of self-actualisation are more and more intertwined with the motives of survival. The routine teachers who do not follow the tendency of improving quality feel worse and worse. Such teachers cannot encourage pupils to learn creatively because their teaching is not permanent and creative. The tendency to make a shift to holistic learning, thinking and teaching demotivates some teachers who still work on the principle of a closed classroom; on the other hand, it motivates those who are ready to grow personally and socially reorganise the school work. Social capital may be developed through teachers’ team cooperation, cooperation between teachers and pupils and among pupils themselves as well as through cooperation of parents with school and state’s support role in promoting an appropriate school climate and culture. Team cooperation among teachers is still an external encouragement and not so much an internal motive. The system could favour a self-image of teachers who are more individually independent and socially dependent and thus have a positive attitude to (planned) changes. The consequence of self-motivation and interactive motivation and communication is a development of experiential learning. According to Weil and McGill (1989) it is the process which leads into new ways of knowing, being, acting and interacting in relation to the world of participants. This means that there exists a lack of the experiential learning of teachers and pupils in Slovenia.

Therefore, in primary and secondary schools, repetition of knowledge is complemented by other forms of knowledge (such as factual, causal, modal and tacit knowledge). A teacher has to master these forms before he can test and assess pupils' knowledge. It is expected that teachers teach the forms of knowledge they acquired in their training (officially required or voluntary training). Teachers-to-be acquire various forms of knowledge as part of their undergraduate education. Later teachers enhance their knowledge at professional training seminars with a view to improving the quality of their teaching. Professional training can be organised as a seminar, a course, ex-cathedra lecture or as research. The aim is to thus go beyond the declarative learning, which is foreseen by the programme, unchangeable in its content and has fixed objectives. That kind of learning has been prevalent in schools and undergraduate studies. Professional training means continuing education or INSET - in-service-training.3

It is well known that routine teachers are less motivated for further education than innovative and creative teachers with a mission, i.e. by vocation. It is also well known that under- and post-graduate teacher education system is not very stimulating for existing teachers. Admittedly, the existing model of teachers-to-be training is mainly fragmented; teachers' professional identity is divided; education is mainly considered as a transmission; knowledge is expected to be partial and system of education is not expected to allow for team work. The model is thus insufficient for satisfying, in the long run, the educational needs of all the participants, especially of pupils. The system of continuing education, on the other hand, attempts at least in some areas, to be integrative, interdisciplinary and transformational. Nevertheless, only adding new technical knowledge in one's subject matter and some didactical tricks is not enough to achieve a new quality of teaching. Some programmes of professional training do not yet meet the criterion of homo educans - homo educator, which is defined as a bio-psycho-social and spiritual being. This deficiency is due to the nature of curricula of continuing professional training, which is not enough open, integrative and adapted to the needs of educational practice or oriented towards the needs of a school. The offer of training programmes has improved. This structural and educational shift is a key for the shift from intrinsic to the extrinsic motivation or for self-motivation of teachers to learn, teach and follow training.

Nowadays teachers and pupils can choose alternative forms of learning:- spontaneous (in an alpha state) or compulsory learning,- non-reflective and memory taxing or personally significant, social learning,- left-sphere or right-sphere learning style,- passive or active learning,- uncreative or inventive and creating,- convergent or divergent learning,- experiential learning in the empirical sense or in the broadest, reflective, transformational sense.

A new motive for learning is to learn to be successful in learning by choosing a suitable learning style concerning 1. learning content, 2. process learning, 3. learning as construction of meaning and 4. learning as personal growth. As we can see in the table 2 we can combine learning and teaching styles and different types of knowledge as well. Our evaluation study (Novak, B, et al., 2002) showed that waiter style of teaching, empirical style of thinking and learning by heart prevail in primary schools. Teaching styles gardener and alpine guide are rare and appear together with the noetic thinking style of pupils. The question is, why are the latter two teaching styles so rare. There are many reasons: 1. they are not informed about different teaching styles, 2. their roles are multiplied, 3. They are not trained enough for realisation of new educational objectives.

Table 2: Teaching and learning styles in school

Waiter or Delivery Van Style

Content Learning and knowledge

Alpine Guide Style

Learning as Construction of Meanings

and Innovative Knowledge

Gardener Style

Learning as Personal Growth and

Personal Knowledge

Sculpture or Constructor Style

Process Learning of Capabilities

and Skills _ Process Knowledge

The source: Marentič-Požarnik, B. (2000). Psychology of learning and teaching.

These four teaching styles were first described in Slovenia by B. Marentič-Požarnik (2000). I chose to show them in a circle. Thus it is clear that they all originate in the waiter style and return to it. This means that a certain percentage of transmissive teaching is necessary, though this percentage can be kept at a minimum. Thus the transformational model is used to its fullest extent. It is a pity teachers have not warmed up to the idea.

2. Concept and realisation of a good teacher and quality education2.1. Concepts of a good teacher

European school has turned into a central and increasingly complex educational institution in the first phase of the development of information society. Education has similarly become a growing area of conflicting and divergent interests. The significance of school autonomy and quality is therefore growing, as well as the need of quality classes and continuous professional training for teachers. Evaluation of factors influencing these changes is of prime importance.

Since growing educational needs are difficult to satisfy, a teacher becomes a lifelong learner calling for continuous training out of urgency. Teachers can learn how to think analytically and synthetically as well as complement the familiar study matter with new scientific findings. Thus they discover and manage new learning situations and also, encourage pupils to try out new methods of learning and information searching. The latter includes keeping up to date with recent events in electronic media. New opportunities open up in interactive educational centres for teachers. Abroad these centres are up and running, in Slovenia, the House of experiments in Ljubljana could be considered such an interactive centre.

The Council of Europe defines a quality teacher as a teacher capable of planning, carrying out and thoughtfully monitoring the optimal programme for each pupil. Particular attention is paid to teachers' capacity to judge the development needs of their pupils and encourage them to quality learn. Teachers nevertheless remain very critical of themselves and of their pupils since teachers do not have enough options for exchanging their experiences - even though this is an opportunity for Slovenian primary and secondary schools to become part of European networks. Standards for quality school classes promote strengthening certain factors such as cooperation among teachers teaching the same subject and among teachers and their pupils in classroom, open school climate4 and flexible organisation of work in school. Teacher are “reflective practitioners” who plan and analyse their classes in terms of the effects a combination of the transmissive and transformational teaching has at a meta-level.

Holistic learning is advocated by Delors (1996) in a form of four pillars: learning for living, working, education and cooperation. Every teacher should apply all kinds of learning in a balanced way. But we observed in Slovenian schools a lack of learning for living and learning for

cooperation. Classes which are not sufficiently oriented to problem solving do not significantly encourage critical thinking.

Štraus (2005) summarises the 2004 OECD report Problem solving for Tomorrow's World, First Measures of Cross-Curricular Competencies from PISA 2003. Paris. He points out that the PISA research focused on three types of problems pupils come across in school, namely decision problems, problems of analysis and preparation of systems and problems of eliminating mistakes in all types of problems. These are PISA’s criteria to the methods of solving problems. 5 Pupils have to understand the given information, recognise the relations between the data and the objects and come up with the presentation of the problem, look for answers to the questions that arise and communicate the results to others.

Our thesis is that TIMSS and PISA international standards of knowledge will speed up experiential learning in its widest sense. So far neither teachers in their teaching nor pupils in their learning have drawn on their own experience. Consequently pupils have been more likely to be unsuccessful. Pupils have not done it because teachers have not requested it, the same as the present teachers were not supposed to put forward their subjective knowledge at the university.

A key factor for teachers' education and training is open school climate promoting development of mutual trust, safety, acceptance and respect in order to make out of weaknesses opportunities for personal growth and improvement. To be constantly ready to learn does not mean any more to be incompetent but rather a need to train how to create a learning environment for pupils to develop their own creative capacities. Another factor is that there are other researchers and not only teachers thinking how to influence the quality of education which makes it more difficult to satisfy educational needs. Other factors include fall in the birth rate (a shift towards individualisation of classes) and development of globalisation. A teacher as an intellectual (Rutar, 2002) should put in practice all four Delors’s learning pillars.

In Slovenia the concept of a good teacher (a motive for continuous education; another motive is quality of classes) has gained ground. In addition to distinguishing between authoritarianism and autonomy, standards and consciousness, teaching oneself and teaching others, good teachers know that they will lose the competition of gaining new knowledge: if they want to remain good teachers, they have to be even more curious than their pupils.

2.2. Quality of education

The quality of classes depends on out-of-school, inter-school and in-school factors.6 Out of school factors underpin curricular reform, school policy, integration of school in the EU programmes (Socrates, Comenius, Erasmus, Tempus etc.), school networking (networks of quality schools, of eco-schools, of Unesco schools). Schools cooperate in carrying out new curricula. There is also a host of in-school factors. We shall distinguish between the factors related to teachers' work in classrooms, organisation of work in schools and cooperation among teachers. The distinction among out-of-school, inter-school and in-school factors is not rigid since the same factors can occur at different levels (e.g. staff policy and teachers' training). Epstein’s (1995) thesis is that school-family partnerships lead to school improvement and pupils’ success, but in Slovenia parents have not any important role on school policy

The organisational institutional forms of improving the quality of Slovenian schools are the following:

First the Ministry of education promises school decentralisation, giving schools more autonomy and responsibility to plan and carry out curricula.

Second, there are many commissions and working bodies promoting quality in education, namely National Leadership School in Brdo near Kranj, Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS) at the Ljubljana Faculty of Education, Commission for didactic reform of high schools at the Ljubljana School Board.

Thirdly, in school networks the best teachers of those first primary schools that switched to the nine-year programme back in 1999 and 2000 present didactic methods and learning results obtained by their schools to teachers from those schools that follow the nine-year programme from a later date (2001—2004).

Fourthly, the mobility of teachers is on the increase; exchange programmes exist with twinned schools and within some EU projects (Tempus, Socrates, Leonardo).

Fifth, some of our schools are included in the project of control theory (W. Glasser), others participate in the project of children self-respect (R. Reasoner) or in the project of Wambach's convergent pedagogy, etc.

Sixth, all faculties are preparing to implement the Bologna strategy, though only a few of them will do it as of this academic year. In Nova Gorica there is a new polytechnic university to be established that claims to be more competitive than the Ljubljana University.

Seventh, the Educational Research Institute has conducted some researches in support of quality, such as TIMSS research since 1995, since 2004 PISA research and three evaluation studies about primary school, high school and vocational school (starting in this year). Our evaluation study (2005-2006; principal investigator: Dr Ivanuš-Grmek, M.) is titled: “Evaluation of the upper secondary education from the perspectives of the extensiveness of the curriculum, inclusion of the cross-curriculum knowledge, and representativeness of the curriculum goals”.

Eight, unfortunately, the education of future science teachers and teachers is still partialized and not integrated.

To develop educational culture of learning, it is important to distinguish between learning in order to get a good mark and learning for life; between informal lifelong learning and formal learning which takes place in a school; between individual and social learning; learning as an intrinsically human function and learning as a cultivated function. These differences influence the selection of a strategy of efficient learning. The curricular reform 1999 has given the necessary impetus for a majority of pupils and students to make a shift from a quality lower level of learning to a quality demanding level. Teachers, though, do not have the necessary knowledge and skills to use alternative didactical methods in order to motivate pupils to organise their knowledge in a self-determined way and to select a strategy to self-regulate learning.

It is not possible to put in practice the transformational paradigm only within schools. The formal education is only one part of lifelong learning and informal education is the other one. The transformational school model entails a process of learning and thinking with flexible styles. Today's (primary) school focuses mainly on external assessment of knowledge and not on the new culture of assessment and evaluation. Thus it encourages development of the first type and not enough of the second. Therefore, any knowledge acquired in this way is quickly fragmented

and easy to forget. The same goes for secondary schools, since pupils there are more externally than internally motivated.

There is a permanent quality improvement needed in a glocalisational oriented school. Therefore, let us define quality teaching which depends on fulfilling the needs of the participants of education and creating opportunities for inclusive education of children with special needs. These opportunities should be provided for in curricula at the following levels:1) defining learning needs,2) defining various special learning needs (in compliance with the OECD methodology),3) providing for various forms of education with regard to the pupils’ needs: individual or group work.

The quality education consists of:- putting forward learning objectives,- relation to pupils’ existing knowledge and experiences,- grouping the acquired information according to subjects and between them,- the problem-based approach,- grouping topics together, use of knowledge and making sure that learning makes sense,- clearing up misunderstandings,- making sure that classes are varied,- including pupils’ interests, wishes, experiences and emotions,- active forms of learning and teaching (Šteh-Kure, 2000; 66).

Quality also entails 1) high knowledge standards, 2) consistency – if education is understood as fostering intellectual capacities, 3) suitability for the objective, 4) counts as a monetary value, 5) transformation from pupils without responsibility into pupils with responsibilities; encouraging dedication to learning and teaching (Šteh-Kure; 2000; 24-25).

Changes in school culture are coupled with changes in school organisational culture (school management), learning and teaching culture by the use of various styles, testing culture7 and school climate. School climate is either closed or open. In its broadest sense it includes school ecology (school building, equipment, size), milieu (experience, education, socio-economic stance of teachers and pupils, value orientation), social structure (code of conduct) and school culture, such as rituals, ceremonies, habits, objectives.

What type of culture can a school select? Stoll (1999) differentiates among four kinds of school culture as traditional culture, welfare culture, hothouse culture and anomic culture. Traditional culture is characterised by careful security, formality, and being unapproachable. The second one is characterised by relaxation, care, warmth, the third one by feelings of claustrophobia, pressure and control and the fourth one by feelings of incertitude, alienation and isolation. The Balkanisation syndrome is typical of teachers who are neither isolated nor feel part of the whole school. Every school can recognise itself in one or other kind of culture. It should fight for the one which it wishes to be developed. The lack of cooperation indicates that in Slovenian schools there is too much of the Balkan culture and not enough of welfare culture. 2.3. Slovenian high school reform

Shortly after Slovenia’s independence in 1991 the general high school, that is still the most difficult type of secondary school, split into a general high school in the strict sense of the word, economic, artistic, technical, professional and classical high school. In the areas where minorities live, there are bilingual high schools. Our high school lasts four years and it exists between the nine-year primary school and the first stage of the Bologna process of university reform. It is again in the process of searching its identity. 8

The curricula commissions assessed the syllabi as being stuffed with content and that something should be done. The assessment of the implementation of syllabi shows that indeed the changes have been done mainly in the content but not to the extent expected.

The 1998 high school syllabi have to be updated. Some updates are prepared to a certain degree for some subjects. There is more freedom in social science syllabi and less in science. The competences are best defined in the languages syllabi. Most subjects list as competencies practical use of knowledge. Only history, sociology and philosophy also feature critical thinking (assessment, evaluation) that entails the competence to research and study notions, solve problems and take part in social democratic processes. Syllabi’s premise is that knowledge means to get familiar and understand basic principles, facts, data, laws and the capacity to use methods and techniques of learning and research. Though, knowledge which presupposes getting familiar and understanding is not broken down to the same elements in all subjects. Geography and history do not distinguish between global and regional. The history syllabus could develop pupils’ capacity to act historically, i.e. a pupil may understand a lot on the basis of historic facts and still not have the impression that one can influence the course of history. At the economic high school, at the subject economy, pupils learn notions such as management but they do not learn how to manage economy; they get familiar with the rules of alternative means of consumption but they do not acquire a critical attitude to consumption. Therefore, some syllabi place a great emphasis on studying phenomena but none of them stresses individual’s social behaviour.

Science syllabi stress the development of analytical thinking whereas the social science ones insist on synthetic thinking. No good synthesis can take place without a good analysis. Therefore, both groups of syllabi should focus on both, analytical and synthetic thinking to a varying degree. Both groups of subjects call for analytical and synthetic thinking as well as logical and intuitive thinking but in a different sense.

2.4. The characteristics of the Slovenian nine-year primary school after curriculum reform

In 1999 the nine-year primary school programme started with a view to easing the load of automatic learning and memorising facts. The expression “transformational model” has been put forward, in Slovenia, by some experts (Marentič Požarnik, 1998, Bečaj, 2001, Erčulj 2001 and Novak, 2000) as a criticism of the reform. For the fundamental differences between the two models/paradigms, see Cvetek, S. (2004), Novak, M. (2005), etc. The new model is put in practice differently at different schools. There are still some ongoing debates on its model and link with the transmissive model.9 Compulsory public primary schools have not yet been sufficiently oriented toward developing pupils’ personality. As problem-solving was almost virtually unknown, memorising facts prevailed as a result of non-reflective learning. Thus pupils do not know, let alone select the special learning strategies.

The curricular reform has brought about a goal-oriented curriculum, attempts to ease the load of learning contents and underlined the significance of developing independent and critical thinking of pupils. The most prominent is teaching for the sake of creative learning with joy. The teacher is more and more a promoter of pupils’ personal development by encouraging development of pupils' eagerness for knowledge and by helping them to choose learning and thinking styles adapted to their personal aptitudes.

Obviously the transmissive model is characterised by the class and bell system (bell marking the end of a class), hierarchy of relations prevailing over democracy, indoctrination instead of the application of methods for the development of critical thinking, and pseudo-activity of pupils. These do not correspond to the current needs; nevertheless, they are still dominant.

Possibly, the Slovenian primary school has programme characteristics (of varying degrees) of the transformational school paradigm, such as: implementation of the integrated curriculum; application of interactive communication in concentric circles: pupils and their teacher, teachers among themselves, teachers and the head-teacher, teachers and parents, school and the environment; consistent development of biological, psychosocial and spiritual layers; inter-institutional school ties (local community, enterprises, health centres, other schools); modification of thinking, learning and teaching styles. In transformational school, teaching styles denote learning in the broadest sense. This means the use of such flexible styles of teaching, thinking and learning that entail many layers of existence and not just one, e. g. the rational or the empirical.

Accordingly, the image of good teachers changes, as teachers become multi-skilled professionals. Beside knowledge about the subject they teach, they need knowledge about learning and teaching. A good teacher10 teaches the learners how to learn by organising the subject systematically and most effectively. Challenges are also in creating a positive self-image of pupils and teachers, in developing independent critical thinking, in increasing the number of roles and tasks of pupils and teachers, in integrative teaching of children with special educational needs and in quality of teaching.

In the interviews teachers of nine-year primary schools gave more answers suggesting the transformational school model than did teachers of eight-year primary schools. They aim to a greater extent at achieving learning objectives and not only at passing on learning contents, as they have the support of the school and colleagues. Therefore, they take into account more the interdisciplinary approach in teaching and assessing and discussions in classroom. All teachers have to consider the pupils' achievements in the subject-matter in terms of developing their interests.11 However, nine-year primary school teachers consider to a far greater extent the need of pupils to be familiar with the new learning methods. The interviews with pupils on the selected sample of primary schools indicate that the nine-year primary school pupils have more interest in the problem of teaching and learning than their peers from the eight-year schools; however only a minority of them is familiar with publications on the topic, with the types of learning, and has heard of the techniques and new evaluation of knowledge.

Factors positively influencing teacher's education include flexible organisation of school work (in contrast with the rigid timetable system), help of colleagues, cooperation of a team of teachers teaching at the same level, understanding of the school management, possibility of extended

periods of study leave, susceptibility to didactic alternatives and innovations. Nonetheless, self-motivation remains the most important factor.

Teachers' further education is a great impetus for the quality of classes. Although the government maintains that teachers are well prepared to teach by the new programmes of the nine-year primary school, the practice shows that this kind of education is lacking. It is probable that the deficit in education of the teachers starting to teach in the first or the last three years of the nine-year primary school in 2003/2004 will become apparent later.

Teachers in nine-year primary schools pursue the same form of graduate studies and hence they have the same sort of experience as their colleagues in the eight-year schools. However, they have more enthusiasm, work as a team and get incentives from the school management.

All teachers are included in the lifelong learning process for many reasons: increasing demands for their complex professionalism, the changing school paradigm, i.e. from transmissive to transformational, increasing needs for quality teaching, the changing programmes of teacher education and the fact that school is turning into an educational institution of central importance for information society. Teachers have to teach pupils and themselves how to learn.

Only one curricular reform cannot bring about a thorough transformation. However, Slovenia has not yet introduced a continuous school reform corresponding to the changes that are taking place thanks to the globalisation process.

The ranking of Slovenian pupils in 2003 TIMSS international comparison in terms of learning results of science and mathematics is not catastrophic but is not satisfactory either. The factors influencing such result should be considered carefully. Science and mathematics teaching strategies are only relatively independent of orientation objectives of the Lisbon declaration, Slovenia’s Development Strategy and other documents that give priority to knowledge. The knowledge in science and mathematics is very closely linked with the development of competitive economy, whereas the social science and humanities have an impact on the development of the (Slovenian) society. If social inequality were increased, this would – because of unequal distribution of social capital – diminish a chance of Slovenian pupils to do well internationally.

Notions such as self-image, self-respect and self-confidence explain the results only partly. High self-image and self-respect can bring about good or bad results since the motive of achieving an effect without appropriate knowledge and skills as to how to solve problems do not lead to a success. In the long run, Slovenia’s prime objective should be to compete with itself and make it a goal for each school and every participant. Thus internal competition would be more important than the external one. Such competition supports cooperation in teachers’ team work, pupils’ cooperative learning – which are still underdeveloped in Slovenia.13

Science and mathematics teachers came up with a Slovenian knowledge standard during the last curricular reform (1996 - 1999). But it is not enough. TIMSS 2003 are not confirm it. There is National Teachers Association – NSTA in the US that elaborates and keeps up science teaching standards. The US National Research Council published them back in 1996. The standards include teaching strategies, organisation of educational experience in classrooms, expectations

and possibilities to satisfy educational needs, in particular pupils’ learning needs, evaluation, improvement of pupils’ first notions (Enfield, 1999). Bush’s reform »No Child Left Behind« includes a programme of enhancing the role of knowledge in science and mathematics in school and enhanced teaching quality in general.

Reflexion on results of Slovenian pupils in TIMSS research 2003

- Slovenian pupil’s attitude towards science and mathematics is not good. It is conditioned by teachers’ attitude and motivation for teaching.- To strengthen the role of science and mathematics at national level the objectives of scientific literacy has to be better set.- The consequence of the research: D. Kobal et al. (2004) Self-image between motivation and competition is that new forms of connecting cooperation and competition should be found as part of national strategy.- Slovenian society has until recently undervalued the role of reproductive knowledge.- Enrolment rate of students on science and technological faculties was low. - The trend of a permissive child-friendly school prevailed.- The taxing of pupils was overrated - overtaxing was an ideology of curriculum reform 1999. - Learning by hart was underrated.- The education of future science teachers has been catastrophic (Vilhar, 2005). Science and mathematics teachers have been not trained appropriately to work with learning- process curricula following curricular reform.

The scientific literacy has a very complex definition. It is defined as the capacity to use scientific knowledge, to identify questions, and to draw evidence based conclusions in order to understand and help to make decisions about the natural world and the changes made to it through human activity. Scientific literacy should encourage “scientific curiosity, scientific competence, scientific understanding, scientific creativity, and scientific sensitivity.12

The Slovenian school should strengthen the role of interactive communication and positive self-image. New forms of connecting cooperation and competition should be found as part of a national strategy. The Slovenian school could achieve better results in mathematics, science, flexible school planning, improving school culture and climate, organisation of classes according to various teaching and learning styles.

The discussion on poor results on 2003 TIMSS research has not been completed. Some of the possible and most probable factors from the perspective of educational culture have been put forward here. This is an early awareness of these results.

4. The main theses and conclusions of this paper

The Slovenian curricular reform 1999 prescribes some characteristics of transformational school paradigm but not all. Surprisingly, there are not many debates about teachers' motives for education and learning, especially because every curriculum emphasises what a pupil should be encouraged to achieve new knowledge and skills. Teachers' motivation is defined in terms of external (point 1), internal (point 2) and interactive motivation (point 4). Selfmotivation is the

deepest level of internal motivation (point 3). Table 2 indicates that these kinds of are connected in a circle. At each stage a teacher can to lose motivation to school work (i. e. in cases of burning out, illness or finding a new job). The cooperation of teachers is still external motivated, but the changes in education imply that the motives of self-actualisation are more and more intertwined with the motives of survival. Supposedly we have some routine teachers who do not follow the tendency of improving quality cannot encourage pupils to learn creatively because their teaching is not creative. Some teachers still work on the principle of a closed system of knowledge and skills and they find it hard to make a shift to holistic learning, thinking and teaching. On the other hand, those teachers who are ready to grow personally and socially find motivation to reorganise their school work.

Motivation leads us to select an appropriate style. A new motive for learning is to learn to be successful in learning by choosing a suitable learning style for 1. learning content, 2. process, 3. construction of meaning and 4. personal growth. As we see in the table 3 we can combine learning and teaching styles and different types of knowledge as well. The teaching styles of a gardener and alpine guide are rare. The presupposition is that the less teacher use transmissive style of teaching the more (s)he can use transformative style of teaching and learning and other kinds of knowledge. There are many organisational institutional forms of improving the quality of Slovenian schools i. e. commissions and working bodies (National Leaderschip School, School Board in Ljubljana, CEPS, reorganisation of faculties in terms of bologna process, establishing new university in Nova Gorica, new evaluation studies at Educational Research Institute).

Slovenian high schools are four-year schools and are a step between the nine-year primary school and university. After Slovenia’s independence in 1991 the general high school, that used to be the most difficult type of secondary school, split into a general high school in the strict sense of the word, economic, artistic, technical, professional and classical high school. They are again in search of their identity because of further differentiation of options and didactical methods.

There are many probable reasons for not satisfied alignment of Slovenian pupils in TIMSS 03 i.e. Slovenian pupil’s attitude towards science and mathematics is not good, Slovenian society has until recently undervalued the role of reproductive knowledge, enrolment rate of students on science and technological faculties was low, the trend of a permissive child-friendly school prevailed, the taxing of pupils was overrated - overtaxing was an ideology of curriculum reform 1999; learning by hart was underrated.

After last Slovenian curricular reform not many differences have been observed in using teaching styles of teachers and learning and thinking styles of pupils in nine-year schools as well. In general, nine-year primary schools and high schools do not yet favour learning over teaching with the exception of the most talented pupils – since the culture of learning has only now started to develop.

The main problem of the countries in the post-socialist transition is how to overcome the remains of authoritarianism and totalitarianism in the arising democratic educational and school culture in order to establish autonomy of schools. The more will be democratic school culture developed

the less bad pupils and students it will produce. Therefore it is one of the most important aims of our schools to consider some experiences from abroad. Unsuccessful pupils are a consequence of the non-qualitative teaching and schools with negative selection instead of a positive one. Be it in social sciences, language or science subjects, pupils think critically and learn creatively when they look for the rules or definitions themselves, when they recognise general patterns in special cases either in a group or individually. In the ex cathedra teaching with the waiter style, the correct thinking is prevalent whereby a question, usually asked by the teacher, can have only one correct answer of the pupils. This style does not develop the variety of teaching and thinking styles and is present to a greater degree in eight-year primary schools.

Notes:

1. There was an international colloquium “School without unsuccessful pupils” held in Pula 28-30 October 2004. In the book of proceedings (Ed., M. Stevanović) there is an abstract - Novak, B. (2004.) A good teacher in the transformative school. pp. 601. My thesis is transformational school softens the negative selection of unsuccessful pupils that otherwise occurs in effect-oriented school.

2. ‘Interactive communication’ (Habermas’s expression) cannot function without interactive motivation. It is a presupposition for cooperative learning among pupils and between teachers and pupils, among teachers in discussion about problems, team teaching etc.

3. INSET stands for “in-service training” (continuing education) and means teacher training in State schools during an academic year. The system comes from the UK. For the Slovenian experience with INSET see Bailey (1994) and Razdevšek-Pučko (1997).

4. McBrien, J.L. & Brandt, R., S. (1997) define school climate as the social atmosphere of a setting or “learning environment” in which pupils and students have different experiences, depending on the process set up by teachers and administrators. There are three components of school climate:- relationship – affiliation with others in the classroom and the support of teacher- personal growth or goal orientation- system maintenance.

5. Apparently Slovenia will participate in PISA project only as of 2006. The described criteria can be found in the 2003 OECD report: The PISA 2003. Assessment Framework: Mathematics, Reading, Science and Problem Solving. Paris.

6. There are many meanings of quality, such as exceptionality, excellence, permanent improvement, consequential behaviour, appropriateness as to the purpose, value for money, transformation. It is unclear though how the quality of life and work is achieved at home, in school, at the university and to what extent. 7. By introducing a new culture of assessment and evaluation, the culture itself is subject to evaluation. The Educational board of the Republic of Slovenia has had a project ‘New culture of evaluation and assessment’, led by Z. Rutar Ilc since 1999. The project aims at primary and

secondary schools. This issue is already well covered. As the basic reading on this topic, see Rutar Ilc, Z. (2000, 2004).

8. For more see the paper Novak, B. (2005). “Odnos med znanjem in kompetencami v ciljih učnih načrtov gimnazije”, presented at the professional consultation “Strategije razvijanja in udejanjanja ključnih kompetenc v Republiki Sloveniji”. held in Grand Hotel Union, Ljubljana on 30 and 31 March 2005.

9. See articles in Sodobna pedagogika 2005/1 on teachers’ attitude to teaching, in particular see Marentič Požarnik, B. (2005).

10. The concept of a good teacher is explained, inter alia, in www.witchvox.com/basics/teachvs.html, Entwistl, N. et al. 2000. The Nature and Possible Origins of Conceptions of Good Teaching Among Student Teaching. Anthropological Notebooks, 2000/1, pp. 81- 100; Gossen, D. & Anderson J., 1996.

11. The interest in developing competencies in school is coupled with the interest in developing literacy (see Medveš, Z. & Resman, M., Ed., 2005). 12. The paper Scientific literacy (http:/hypersoil.uni-muenster.de2/01/05.htm, pp.1-3) defines scientific literacy as a cross-section of 1) theoretical scientific comptence, 2) ethical, emotional and aesthetic capacity as well as learning, thinking, communicational and social capacity. According to the PISA project, scientific literacy includes understanding science issues, understanding basic notions, trust in the methods of scientific thinking and working as well as critical consideration of the possibilities and limits of scientific knowledge.

13. For more on the topic see the article Novak, B. (2005). The relation between primary school pupils’ knowledge and learning as shown through some TIMSS research. To be published in the scientific review School Field.

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