Introduction
This volume focuses in general on models in health and the forms of activity
undertaken by different entities. By now, a common agreement is shared: social
model of health is the model everyone has to refer to, especially when dealing with
health promotion, particularly around cancer or the risk of chronic diseases, or
wider other pathologies. But are we really sure to share the same content when we
say “health communication”? Many scholars assume that a lot of social actors are
intervening into this “social act”: primary school and biology teachers, journalists,
bloggers and community managers, medical staff, patients, and their relatives,
scientists, researchers – not to mention social sciences researchers! – through medias
and means of communication: TV programs, TV series, digital media, social networks,
NGO’s, pharmaceutical companies advertisings...
To make clearer the future models of health, beyond “health promotion”
standards, we follow the hypothesis that in a world where openness and sharing are
becoming central, controversial social issues could be a fruitful means.
The authors would like to contribute to improve our knowledge about
this ecosystem by crossing approaches coming from the fields of education and
communication as these both fields are participating in the public sphere and
knowledge mediation processes. It will cover a wide range of topics such as alternative
medicine, vaccinations, antibiotic resistance. Obviously, cancer and chronic diseases
are a very interesting field of investigations, but all pathologies can be used to develop
health education and communication issues.
The main areas of our interests are the following:
I. Education
Education systems are long-term evolving systems. Any reform needs time to
become active. What are the representations and competencies of the teaching staff,
future teaching staff regarding new therapeutics, contemporary medical knowledge
or health models? Can new teaching processes and their evaluation provide solutions
to health literacy?
What about news on “health-knowledge” mediations? What is their impact on
health literacy?
II. Policies
Policymakers often launch health promotion campaigns on various topics. A lot
of Non-Governmental Organizations are involved in health education as well. Are
they acting contradictory? Are they collaborating? Do NGO develop an alternative
way of thinking about health issues? How can we understand their positions? How
[4] Introduction
can we analyze resistances to the directive and normative discourses of all these
social actors? Can new policies meet the emerging health challenges?
III. Medias and on-line communications
On-line communities and social media, as well as popular TV series, movies
and on-line newspapers undoubtedly participate in the spreading of information
and somehow are an essential cog in health education and knowledge mediation
processes. Would they be right or wrong, fake or transformed? Do they describe
adequately the social health challenges? How do they need to evolve in the roles and
practices? How can we analyze and discuss social circulation of this knowledge, from
the producers to the receivers and users and backwards? What could be the evolution
of social actors’ representations and to what extend behaviors can be impacted by
these “new media”?
We try to answer these questions, but most of all, to start a discussion…
Katarzyna Potyrała

Introduction
Educational contexts, dilemmas and controversies in the face of new technologies
Editors of “Science” have recently developed questions, which in their opinion deserve
special attention and are controversial. These questions relate to the problems
of the world and human problems: local and global, biology and medicine, human
environment and the future of our planet. The most frequently asked questions considered
the issues of the relationship of genetic variability with the state of health,
the mechanisms of memory and its evolution, causes of biodiversity, the availability
of an effective vaccine against HIV, a real possibility of fatal consequences of global
warming, cloning or genetically modified organisms.
There are also opinions on social transformation and new civilization of knowledge
as the consequences of the technological revolution. Emerging predictions
have both supporters and opponents, it is said that information technology supports
many scientific fields and research progress is largely the result of the synergy work
of scientists and technology. Opponents argue that information technology promotes
pseudoscientific ideas and research. It acknowledges the importance of the ethical
issues in science and commercialization of research results, which can limit the flow
of scientific information and narrow scientific problems to projects applications.
Sociological moral dilemmas are related to issues of functioning and transformation
of society, the processes leading to exclusion or social stigmatization to name
just two.
One time, sociobiology which adopts, among others, that genes play a fundamental
role in shaping human behavior and that there are insurmountable limitations
in reducing features such as aggressiveness became a field of great scientific
controversies in terms of religion and politics As bioethical problems there are to
be considered such issues as artificial insemination, abortion, cloning, stem cells,
genetic engineering, genetically modified foods, trade in tissues and organs for
transplantation, euthanasia, environmental protection, ecological ethics, eugenics,
prolonging life.
Particular controversies are connected with acts of intolerance, not accepting
personal choices of man and forcing their views and the views of other people
identified as sexism and racism. These last two are based on the belief of the
superiority of one person over another, and supported by the pseudoscientific views
promoted by the media can lead to phenomena which should not take place in the
21st century.
Much of the difficulties relate to contemporary education, and the future of
young people. Consequently, we need to refer to the problem of teacher training.

That what is very important today is undertaking new solutions and reaching for
a new philosophy of teaching and learning.
It is also connected with the functioning of young people in the face of these
dilemmas. Roles, tasks and social decisions which are undertaken by the youth are
often based on established patterns and relate to the information created by media.
These issues also reveal new fields of research and present new directions for
research. Another problem is the responsibility of scientific research and ethical
research. This assessment in the first place belongs to the researcher and often confronts
them with their own system of values and standards of research.
New volume of the Annales is an attempt of starting the debate about educational
contexts, dilemmas and controversies in the face of new technologies. It
applies to both: heritage and present day, social change and sustainability, formal
education and informal education, new methods and new environments, inclusion
and individualization. What is significant is the fact that the majority of scientists
are naturalists – it means that they take into account special problems of the world
and human problems in the 21st century. Recommendation refers to real world, as
according to an American author, filmmaker, philosopher, cultural critic, essayist,
and poet Suzy Kassem’s words:
Everybody has a little bit of the sun and moon in them. Everybody has a little bit of man,
woman, and animal in them. Darks and lights in them. Everyone is part of a connected
cosmic system. Part earth and sea, wind and fire, with some salt and dust swimming in
them. We have a universe within ourselves that mimics the universe outside. None of us
are just black or white, or never wrong and always right. No one. No one exists without
polarities. Everybody has good and bad forces working with them, against them, and
within them (Suzy Kassem, Rise Up and Salute the Sun: The Writings of Suzy Kassem).
Katarzyna Potyrała

Introduction
What does it mean „Responsible Educational Research (RER)” ?
The main objective of this volume of our Journal is to build a strong background
of partnership and community of various European institutions in the area of
Responsible Educational Research (RER) in order to share knowledge, best practices,
experience and foster the dissemination and promotion of philosophy of RER.
Specific goals of this volume are as follows:
–– to enable European researchers to undertake the educational issues connected
with the health, gender, sustainable development, ICT in education and
inclusive education in responsible way,
–– to exchange knowledge between universities and enable them to transfer
experience from their projects and research,
–– to ensure the possibility for the researchers and other stakeholders to represent
their work to the community and other scientists in Europe and beyond,
–– to develop the governance for the advancement of responsible research
by all stakeholders (researchers, policy makers, business and civil society
organisations), which is sensitive to society needs and demands and promotes
responsible educational research,
–– to foster sustainable interaction between research institutions, business and
policy makers,
–– to ensure the dissemination of information about scientific achievements in the
area of educational research at the international level.
The following factors are crucial for the development of educational research:
open access, ethics and transparency. So far, none comprehensive activities have
been taken that would clearly define the issues of transparency and responsibility
of educational research.
The first important factor is an open access to scientific publications and
articles. Currently, it is believed that access to research results contributes to the
overall improvement of the quality of research and innovation in both public and
private sectors. In principle, such activities are to support creation of the European
Research Area and the Innovation Union – the two flagship initiatives of the
European Commission in the field of research and development.
Open access is defined as the practice of providing on-line access to scientific
information that is free of charge to the end-user and that is re-usable. In the context
of research and innovation, scientific information can refer to peer-reviewed
scientific research articles or research data. Wider access to scientific publications
and data therefore helps to build on previous research results (improved quality
of results), foster collaboration and avoid duplication of effort (greater efficiency),
[4]
accelerate innovation and involve citizens and society (improved transparency of
the scientific process).
The next important factors are transparency and ethics. Researchers have
an ethical obligation to facilitate the evaluation of their evidence-based knowledge
claims through data access, production transparency, and analytic transparency
so that their work can be tested or replicated. For example, researchers making
evidence-based knowledge claims should provide a full account of how they draw
their analytic conclusions from the data, i.e. clearly explicate the connecting data
to conclusions. In case of educational research this issue is particularly important.
Transparency is one of the crucial criteria in educational research. Researchers
are sensitized by transparency in the scope of advantage and disadvantage aspects
of research project. It protects readers, as well as authors, from illegal inferences and
distant associations which are beyond the reach of research project. Transparency
provides conditions for verification of presented research results. Science education,
focusing on human and social processes associated with its development and
functioning, enters an area empiricism so many times, each time trying to determine
the condition of the part of individuals and the conditions in which they have
to operate. From the point of view of a certain scientific community, credibility of
observations made and statements formulated based on them depend on the accuracy
of methodological solutions adopted in this community. So it is particularly
important in the process of publishing research results to gain transparency of
their course, giving recipients the opportunity to review conclusions, without which
they are exposed to the dangers of subjectivism, unauthorized generalization and
interpretation of data collected during the research process. Transparency in presenting
the results of the observations is particularly important for young scientists
[Sławomir Pasikowski, Transparentność w publikowaniu wyników badań empirycznych
poświęconych edukacji (Transparency in publishing results of empirical
research on education), Educational Studies Review, Vol. 1, No. 16 (2013)].
In a European context the following points of reference should be reflected in
the design of research processes:
–– ethical acceptability, which includes compliance with both the EU charter on
fundamental rights, as well as the safety of research,
–– orientation towards societal needs, which includes an orientation towards
contributing to achieving objectives of sustainable development (consisting of
economic, social, as well as environmental aspects).
Due to the fact that the volume is focused on responsible educational research,
it is necessary to analyse the definition and main aspects of responsible research.
Firstly, responsible research refers to the comprehensive approach of
proceeding in research, in ways that allow all stakeholders that are involved in the
processes of research and innovation at an early stage. It enables:
[5]
–– to obtain relevant knowledge on the consequences of the outcomes of their
actions and on the range of options open to them,
–– to effectively evaluate both outcomes and options in terms of societal needs
and moral values,
–– to use these considerations as functional requirements for design and
development of new research.
Responsible research aims mainly at being:
–– responsive: if research claims to be responsible, it has the capacity to change
its direction or shape when it becomes apparent that the current developments
do not match societal needs or are ethically contested; responsiveness refers
to the flexibility and capacity to change research and innovation processes
according to public values,
–– inclusive: inclusiveness asks researchers and innovators to involve diverse
stakeholders in the process to broaden and diversify the sources of expertise
and perspectives,
–– reflexive: reflexivity asks researchers and innovators to think about their own
ethical, political or social assumptions to enable them to consider their own
roles and responsibilities in research, as well as in public dialogue; reflexivity
should raise awareness for the importance of framing issues, problems and
the suggested solutions (Options for strengthening Responsible Research and
Innovation, European Commission, 2013).
The articles had undertaken the challenge of being the examples of a good practice
in the area of RER, and open-acces to them is one of the factors of transparency
in our professional development.
Katarzyna Potyrała

Introduction Animation of science culture as one of top priorities in contemporary education
Formal and informal education is vital for the society. It is the means to realizing the need for human development emphasized by contemporary psychology, civilization transformations and the necessity to acquire new qualifications and competencies.
Adapting to the ever-changing reality, broadening one’s knowledge and mastering skills, developing one’s character and finally understanding culture and the needs of society are all factors contributing to the development of global society. All of the elements mentioned are connected to constant and life-long education allowing to fill any gaps in knowledge, as well as to perceive science and its popularization as values by both students (throughout their education) and adults. Teachers, educators of informal education and cultural animators take active part in the process. Therefore, the demand for educating specialists in this particular field is a key notion of current didactics.
The first volume is concerned with transformations within the didactics of biology understood as a subdiscipline of pedagogy and part of nature studies. The second volume deals with educational models promoting the notion of biodiversity.
The third volume includes articles on “health literacy” – knowledge and skills in health issues that every member of knowledge-based society should posses. The fourth volume focuses on one of the key tasks of didactics of biology, that is life-long education in terms of interdisciplinary understanding of balanced development and, in particular, environmental protection.
The topic of the fifth issue of the Annales is animation of nature culture as a way of influencing formal and informal education, education through culture and for culture, as well as supporting balanced development of knowledge-based society.
The theory of pedagogy of culture animation is connected to cultural socialization of young people and to cultural education through getting them involved in creating, mastering and popularizing knowledge. The authors of the present issue deal with issues such as: teachers’ competencies necessary for realizing integrational [4]
education; sense of responsibility; universalism and cultural identity; responsibility for nature; the use of information and communication technologies; identifying global and local character of processes surrounding a person in the modern world.
What is also of great importance is the necessity of realizing the needs of children, teenagers and adults in the area of increasing their involvement in science, culture and social life.
Popularization of knowledge is connected with the search for forms of proper sharing of the latest scientific and academic achievements to various recipients. The ability to present information in an attractive form that catches attention is of vital importance. Also important is enabling participation in various interdisciplinary projects aimed at promoting cultural events, as well as solving global and local environmental issues by involving creativity, motivation and emotions of the audience.
Culture encompasses knowledge, understanding, skills, relations, and conver-gence of different forms of reality – everything that facilitates human thinking and evaluation. One of cultural activity enabling reflection upon and transmission of knowledge based on the above-mentioned criteria is writing and interpreting literature, as well as creating or taking part in scientific theatre. All of those activities inspire and solidify academic interests. Furthermore, they encourage social activities in cultural sphere.
People live in the world of values constituting their personalities and sur-roundings, influencing development of identity, culture, history, activity, physical and psychological well-being, and various types of relationships. One of such values is nature, promotion of which calls for the involvement of numerous institutions and organizations of formal and informal education which popularize knowledge through various projects, such as museums, festivals, contests, campaigns, social work, trips, field work, publishing periodicals. Those are manifestations of integration and collective management of development of natural and cultural heritage both on a local and global scale.
Global education is based, among other things, on living by certain values, interdependence, challenges, and scientific and cultural correlations. The task of societies is devising strategies to solve problems of the modern world. This is accomplished through school programs aimed at educating students about proper approach to scientific knowledge, as well as cultural, religious, social and ethnic differences between countries. The purpose is to teach them proper forms of communication with people from all over the world, to shape individual attitudes, and to make students aware of multiculuralism and interculturalism. It is necessary to use such techniques and methods of teaching which facilitate solving socio-emotional problems through students’ democratic communication with cultural community and social organizations.
Everything that constitutes nature culture can influence human activity and have a key role in shaping people’s attitude to the world of science and art.
Introduction[5]
Introduction
An interesting encounter with a given branch of science, even though at times occasional or onetime, can spark the emergence of hidden potential of a given person.
Therefore, the animator of science culture is given a key role. Such a person should co-operate with different social groups in a competent way in order to responsibly promote knowledge and art through “academic debate” based on cognitive systems, correcting errors in the audience’s existing knowledge, using proper forms of communication.
Promoting integrational education is another key issue. Such integration can be implemented in the case of children with developmental disorders such as Asperger’s Syndrome whose symptoms include difficulties in establishing relations with other people and in adapting to the reality present. Therefore, creating opportunities of overcoming such difficulties is yet another task of science culture animation. This is accomplished, among other things, through “therapy” making use of the richness of the world of science, as well as knowledge in the areas of psychology and pedagogy.
One of the elements influencing the formation of proper relations between people thus improving sharing knowledge and scientific dialogue is recognizing people as social beings. This in fact is what drives them to search for new information and share it in the process of socialization.
Self-organization, self-development, linguistic correctness, a form of educational coaching, awareness of technological innovations, monitoring the outcomes of scientific, academic and educational researches, giving feedback are all components necessary for the development of animators of science culture. They in turn contribute to the development of institutions of formal and informal education.
Connected to the issue is the debate on teachers’ training and methods used in the process (both theoretical and practical). Those should enable the development of professional competencies of future educators.
The increasing interest in events oriented at popularizing knowledge, interactive mueums, exhibitions, etc creates the need for equipping future scientists not only with theoretical knowledge, but also with the skill of sharing said information with different audiences and with the skill of shaping proper social attitudes towards the environment, nature and one’s own health. Meeting the expectations of future employers should be realized at university level through introducing new subjects and fields of study. That is why, in the academic year 2014/2015, the Pedagogical University of Cracow introduced a new scpecialization field: “Animation of science culture”. It was dedicated to students with Bachelor’s Degrees in Biology and Environmental Protection. The University of Burgundy served as the example.
Based on their already tested and verified methodology, the Cracow’s university developed their own curricula of the specialization. The French model of teaching science culture animators was adapted to the Polish reality. It was also emphasized that an animator of science culture should not only be fluent in the sciences but should also posses certain traits of character and social skills.
Katarzyna Potyrała and Karolina Czerwiec

Introduction
Environmental Protection and Sustainable Development...
as a Contemporary Educational Priority
The phenomena of information noise and information overproduction relate to
many contemporary civilization challenges, including the realization of the idea of
sustainable development. Continuous education in the area of solving environment
protection and human health problems seems to be one of the priority tasks of the
didactics of biology.
Volume I of the Annals touched upon the topics related to didactics of biology
in the context of its shifts as a pedagogy subdiscipline and a subject of the Nature
Studies. Volume II covered the issue of educational models in the area of biodiversity
promotion. Volume III, in turn, focused on “health literacy” – knowledge and skills
every member of the knowledge-based society should possess on the topic of health.
The challenges the contemporary schools on all educational levels have to
face revolve upon the interdisciplinary approach to environmental protection, and
in the wider meaning, sustainable development. It is a difficult and complex task,
because of the fact that currently the actions taken by schools, from primary school
to an university, are too slow in comparison to social changes and needs regarding
the environmental problem solving. Climate changes, ecological catastrophes,
atmosphere pollution or modern-age diseases are crises the contemporary world
has to face. The human anthropogenic activity contributes to the disadvantageous
changes in the natural environment. This is why appropriate education plays an
incredibly important role in the shaping of a proper life style and acting towards
environment protection. More and more attention to the issues of global and local
actions of the society on sustainable environment is being paid by governments,
governmental and non-governmental organizations and scientists of many countries.
Environment protection is a multidisciplinary subject from the border of
a number of scientific areas, which becomes more and more important in the sphere
of social responsibility for the coexistence of man and nature. Educational negligence
in the area of promoting respect to natural environment and media actions towards
promoting consumptionism result in the contemporary civilisation life style not
always being in accordance with taking care of nature, and the environment protection
[4] Introduction
awareness is too low to take any actions towards counteracting the natural resources
degradation. This is why it is so important to educate specialists in the environment
area and prepare students of both future teachers and decision-makers to properly
include environmental protection into the educational process and understand
the essence of managing the environment. It is also important to work towards
the safety in terms of “global education,” which can be achieved through proper
educational work on the local and national scale, e.g. through promoting innovative
interdisciplinary research and educational projects undertaken in cooperation
with specialists and institutions of different areas of science. These actions should
include the issue of the environment in the cultural, economic, political, democratic
and technological approach in the international context. The results achieved on the
basis of this cooperation can contribute to implementing new teaching strategies
for environmental protection. Exchanging experiences, test results and formulated
materials is a chance for teachers, educators and also students to start increasing
the capabilities, range and quality of environmental education. Teaching about the
environment should be connected with the understanding of the needs of specific
people, stimulating solidarity in the range of economic, ethical, political and cultural
actions and raising the sense of co-responsibility for improving the environment.
A reflection on the function of formal education in promoting the rules of
sustainable development should include the multiplicity of education goals and
the readiness of students and teachers to cooperate in this aspect. Helping schools
implement good practices on the environmental protection should be supported
by the municipalities and local societies. The actions programme of the local
government should be based on promoting the knowledge-deepening process on
environmental protection, as well as organizing the initiatives engaging the society
of a given region to actively improve the state of the surrounding environment and
increase pro-ecological awareness, and thus take effective actions in the region.
The dynamics and complexity of the environment as a place where a man lives
requires considering it in the scope of multidimensional education open to the
society’s needs. Shaping the right attitudes and opinions towards the pro-ecological
actions should be permanently implemented in the school and university curricula
and understood as a list of teaching and learning goals. Implementing new content
regarding the scientific advances in the field of sustainable development in the formal
education should be correlated with the promotion of the upbringing towards the
respect for nature protection laws. Only the right motivation of the members of the
society to implement the environment protection knowledge, take actions in this
regard and use the proper system of values in the environment protection aspect
can influence the global problem of environment pollution, respect the law in this
regard and creatively solve the worldwide problems of sustainable development.
Learning the practical competences in understanding and integrating the actions
towards shaping the pro-environmental attitudes and supporting the initiatives on
the notion of being responsible for the future of the world in the difficult reality of
Introduction [5]
today can be facilitated by modernizing the educational process and filling the gaps
in the students’ knowledge structure regarding the issue of environment protection.
The special educational role in teaching about the environment is being played
by the media as means of non-formal education. Through this the society can receive
information on the advantages resulting from the latest genetic and technological
studies about biodiversity, as well as use them in a balanced management of natural
resources. Monitoring the protected areas, developing strategies and programmes
of maintaining biodiversity and information on the international cooperation in this
area should reach as many people as possible. A very important role in forwarding
the right patterns of nature education is being attributed to the organization and
coordination of an information network on the international arena through the
integration of environmental, artistic, economic and social science knowledge.
A good way to understand the environmental problems and analyze the social
behaviours in this regard is the popularizational activity of the university. The
constant decline of the environment quality, social and economic problems and
inappropriate behaviour of people in the aspect of nature protection require
higher schools to strongly influence the knowledge and the shaping of the system
of values of students in the area of increasing the environmental awareness and
motivate them to solve local problems of sustainable development. The constant
development of the society, both economically and technologically, creates the
need for the higher education institutions to look for ways of realizing the goals
of environmental protection and to create methods that make society aware of the
need to responsibly deal with environmental challenges of the modern world.
Katarzyna Potyrała and Karolina Czerwiec

Introduction
As the risk society develops, so does the antagonism between those afflicted by risks and those who profit from them. The social and economic importance of knowledge grows similarly, and with it the power over the media to structure knowledge (science and research) and disseminate it (mass media). The risk society in this sense is also the science, media and information society. Thus new antagonisms grow up between those who produce risk definitions and those who consume them1.
Modern Biology Didactics must face new civilizational challenges. They are, among others, information surplus, necessity of life-long learning, solving problems and making decisions concerning natural environment, health, and implementing the rules of sustainable development. The educational strategies applied so far have proved insufficient, hence the numerous attempts to modify the existing classifications, methods labels and assumptions of their practical realization. The previous volumes of the Annales were devoted to the transformation of Biology Didactics as a pedagogical subdiscipline and an educational subject in the academic tradition of university-based Biological Studies (vol. I), and to seeking paradigms for education in biodiversity protection (vol. II). We are currently facing an important task. Within the scope of scientific literacy, i.e. the knowledge indispensable to every member of the information society, we need to reflect upon the knowledge and skills constituting the ‘health literacy’. This is due, among others, to the fact that researchers have observed growing social interest – displayed mainly by young people – in the issues of IVF and other applications of scientific achievements in medicine, life threats in the context of various sexual behaviours, contraception, intoxicants and stimulants abuse, food additives and GMO related health safety.
There are other issues that must be touched upon, e.g. the health and life threats to infoholics (information addicts) and compulsive internet users (internet addicts).
Such disorders often underlie emotional disorders in children and young people (such as aggression and other behaviours that pose a threat to others).
Biology Didactics as a field seeks methods of delivering teaching contents relat-ed to health and attempts to identify the scope of the new knowledge which should be included in the curricula at different levels of education. These aims call for close cooperation with specialists in current human biology issues, extended research in human biology teaching, and discussion among the health education practitioners.
1  U. Beck, 1992, Risk Society – Towards a New Modernity, Sage, London, p. 46.[4]
Introduction
Modern youth’s lifestyle in extended reality often stems from the hyper-reality and from the fact that the media constitute the extension of senses of the modern man. The media, not the school, create most of the opinions and attitudes of young people when it comes to the subject of health, sickness and risk, and disease preventive measures. Therefore the problem the modern school faces is that it does not keep pace with the social needs and does not display an interdisciplinary approach towards e.g. environmental and health issues. When speaking of environmental issues, it is worth contemplating how human interference with the natural environment affects human health.
Graduates from different educational levels lack competence when it comes to social mediation conducted by specialists facing a clash of interests in natural environment exploitation, or in negotiations concerning the interests of patients and their families in conflicts resulting from inadequate communication related to health issues and health problem solving.
We must ask, then, what competences are indispensable for the 21st century people to be able to correctly assess risk and to participate in a dialogue with spe-cialists when it comes to taking the most important decisions concerning their health and life? Thus we pose a question about competences (motives, values, in-volvement), not only about qualifications confirmed by appropriate certificates and diplomas.
We ask this question today, when school is commonly attacked and criticized.
From the perspective of the society, curricula are supposed to reinforce the perma-nent values and accepted models, or to create a significant breach in the existing habits, to change the existing values of cultural patterns, and to trigger a vital turn towards the pupil’s individuality. Thus school faces criticism from the conservative point of view, for the lack of unified curriculum requirements, notions canon and reading lists, and from the liberal point of view, for not providing conditions for the pupil’s individual development. Meanwhile, we try to come up to the message included in Federico Mayor’s The World Ahead: Our Future in the Making, which calls upon us to create educational contexts taking into account new knowledge (chiefly biology), in order to conduct research and control the cognitive process. We make the teacher face the necessity of: filtering the multitude of information; increasing or reducing the influence of external stimuli; providing situations for the pupils to mo-bilize and activate the new knowledge and to test its efficiency and limitations; pro-viding situations in which the new data is more easily accessed and acquired, when the pupils use the new structure of notions and learn to activate their knowledge.
The articles selected for this volume consider many different aspects of the civi-lizational risks. Authors of particular chapters are renowned specialists in various fields, sometimes quite diverse (pedagogy, biology: mainly physiology, chemistry, human nutrition, or pharmacology), and they are all involved in the topic of risks posed by the environment. In general, the reflections presented by the Authors cre-ate an atmosphere of lively debate, which may become a starting point in developing Introduction
[5]
educational communication strategies, where civilizational risks constitute the main axis of discussion. The publication contains 12 articles in English. The Authors are academics from Poland and Argentina, France, Germany, Switzerland and India.
As the review of this volume states, “the choice of the Authors is by no means acci-dental, as they are indeed experienced specialists in their fields”.
In the beginning of the volume, we commemorate Professor Jerzy Wołek, whose professional path for several years overlapped with the path of development of Polish Biology Didactics.
Katarzyna Potyrała

Wstęp
Chciałem zmienić świat.
Doszedłem jednak do wniosku, że mogę jedynie zmieniać samego siebie.
Aldous Huxley
Światowy Rok Różnorodności Biologicznej (2010) ogłoszony przez ONZ miał na celu prowadzenie międzynarodowej kampanii w kierunku podniesienia świadomo-ści społecznej na temat zróżnicowania ożywionej części przyrody. Chodziło między innymi o zwrócenie uwagi na znaczenie różnorodności biologicznej dla jakości życia człowieka, pokazanie dotychczasowych osiągnięć w dziedzinie ochrony zasobów przyrodniczych oraz zachętę do podejmowania dalszych wzmożonych wysiłków na rzecz przeciwdziałania utracie różnorodności biologicznej (Kalinowska 2011a).
W sferze naukowej, Światowy Rok Różnorodności Biologicznej był okazją do zaprezentowania wyników badań własnych i zespołowych oraz włączenia się naukowców w ogólnoświatową dyskusję nad teoretycznymi i praktycznymi uwa-runkowaniami kształtowania pojęć i budowania podstaw przyrodniczej wiedzy społecznej, zgodnie z zasadą zrównoważonego rozwoju. W Polsce zasada zrówno-ważonego rozwoju zyskała rangę konstytucyjną – została zapisana w art. 5 konsty-tucji RP, a definicja zrównoważonego rozwoju znalazła się w ustawie Prawo ochro-ny środowiska: „taki rozwój społeczno-gospodarczy, w którym następuje proces integrowania działań politycznych, gospodarczych i społecznych, z zachowaniem równowagi przyrodniczej oraz trwałości podstawowych procesów przyrodniczych, w celu zagwarantowania możliwości zaspokajania podstawowych potrzeb poszcze-gólnych społeczności lub obywateli zarówno współczesnego pokolenia, jak i przy-szłych pokoleń”.
Niniejsza publikacja, traktowana jako wymiana poglądów na temat różnorod-ności biologicznej, na tle badań naukowych i uwarunkowań edukacyjnych, wpisu-je się w te działania. Celem jest wypracowanie paradygmatu – wiodącego prądu w nauce – rekomendowanego na różnych etapach kształcenia. Istnieje wiele defi-nicji różnorodności biologicznej oraz sposobów jej określania i pomiaru. Ukazanie dróg przewidywania, zapobiegania oraz zwalczania przyczyn zmniejszania się lub jej zanikania może być jednym z elementów strategii edukacyjnych opartych na kry-tycznym myśleniu, argumentowaniu i komunikacji społecznej.
Pojawiła się zatem konieczność pogłębionych analiz definicyjnych i dyskusji opartych na wynikach badań prowadzonych przez różnych specjalistów na temat teo-retycznych i praktycznych uwarunkowań różnorodności biologicznej organizmów. [4]
Wstęp
Autorom zaproszonym do współpracy nad publikacją przyświecało założenie, że wiedza rozwijana jest w ramach nie pojedynczych teorii, a raczej większych zbio-rów osądów, które powinny być uzgadniane, aby osiągnąć spójność między sobą.
Kompleksowe zagadnienia, takie jak bioróżnorodność, wymagają bowiem ożywie-nia współpracy różnych specjalistów, zwłaszcza w kontekstach edukacyjnych.
Warto przypomnieć, że termin bioróżnorodność pojawił się w 1968 roku w książce traktującej o potrzebie ochrony przyrody, autorstwa Raymonda Dalesma-na, ale do roku 1980 nie znalazł akceptacji naukowców. W 1980 roku pojęcie róż-norodności biologicznej pojawiło się także w przedmowie do książki Thomasa Lovejoya (Conservation Biology), który uchodzi za twórcę terminu bioróżnorodność (za: Kędziora, Karg 2010). W powszechnym użyciu termin ten znalazł się od oko-ło połowy lat 80. XX wieku, a do międzynarodowego obiegu wprowadzony został w końcu lat 80. XX w. przez amerykańskiego biologa, profesora Edwarda O. Wilsona (Kalinowska 2011b). Obecnie stosowany jest w kontekście zagrożeń dla środowiska naturalnego, w szczególności w odniesieniu do zagadnienia wymierania gatunków.
Różnorodność biologiczna, bioróżnorodność – oznacza powszechnie zróż-nicowanie życia na wszelkich poziomach jego organizacji. Zgodnie z Konwencją o różnorodności biologicznej (1992), różnorodność biologiczna to „zróżnicowanie wszystkich żywych organizmów występujących na Ziemi w ekosystemach lądo-wych, morskich i słodkowodnych oraz w zespołach ekologicznych, których są czę-ścią. Dotyczy ona różnorodności w obrębie gatunku (różnorodność genetyczna), pomiędzy gatunkami oraz różnorodności ekosystemów”.
Dobór prac do pierwszej części tomu poświęconego bioróżnorodności wynikał z chęci nietypowego podejścia do kwestii trwałości układów podtrzymujących życie w biosferze. Bioróżnorodność ma podstawowe znaczenie dla ewolucji, jej ubożenie wyraża się między innymi poprzez zmniejszanie zróżnicowania genowego w popu-lacjach. Istotne znaczenie dla zachowania różnorodności biologicznej w przestrzeni rolniczej ma też zróżnicowanie siedlisk, a bogata bioróżnorodność, definiowana nie tylko jako bioróżnorodność międzygatunkowa, nastręcza poważnych problemów, np. z definiowaniem pojęcia gatunku bakteryjnego. W dyskusji uczestniczą genety-cy, fizjolodzy, mikrobiolodzy, paleontolodzy i ekolodzy.
Artykuły zawarte w drugiej części tomu podnoszą zagadnienie bioróżnorod-ności w kontekstach edukacyjnych. Obecność treści dotyczących różnorodności or-ganizmów w programach kształcenia i zawartość treściowa programów nauczania, a równocześnie wyniki badań, które wskazują, że stan świadomości ekologicznej uczniów jest bardzo niski (Morka 2010), a efekty edukacji środowiskowej społe-czeństwa niezadowalające (Tuszyńska 2008), wymuszają potrzebę podjęcia kro-ków w kierunku adaptacji nowych modeli nauczania i uczenia się przyrody, bio-logii i ochrony środowiska, wspomagających procesy przetwarzania informacji, rekonstrukcji wiedzy i budowania allosterycznego środowiska uczenia się (Giordan 1998).
Cytowane poniżej słowa Karola Darwina z dzieła pt. O powstawaniu gatunków uświadamiają czytelnikowi rozmiar zjawiska, jakim jest bioróżnorodność.
Prawdopodobnie wszystkie formy życia organicznego, jakie kiedykolwiek istniały na tej Ziemi, pochodzą od pierwotnej formy, w którą po raz pierwszy tchnięto życie […]. Jest coś wspaniałego w takiej wizji życia […] albowiem podczas gdy ta planeta krążyła zgod-Wstęp
[5]
nie z niezmiennym prawem grawitacji, z tak prostych początków rozwinęły się nieskoń-czone formy, najpiękniejsze i najcudowniejsze, i dalej się rozwijają.
Bioróżnorodność – sprowadzana najczęściej do ochrony gatunkowej roślin i zwierząt, z pominięciem, np. mikroorganizmów, grzybów, a także różnorodności krajobrazów i rozmaitości genów obecnych w pulach genowych populacji – nie uka-zuje zjawiska zmienności organizmów, a tym samym wartości życia i różnorodno-ści jego przejawów. Kompleksowy system organizacji żywej materii wymaga rów-nież podejścia etycznego, szacunku dla każdej formy życia, jako istotnego i cennego wkładu w ewolucję świata organicznego.
Szkoda drogocennego czasu i energii na skupianie się wyłącznie na zagroże-niach dla bioróżnorodności i w tym kontekście na inwazyjnej naturze człowieka, czy pytaniach jaki będzie świat wobec ogromu zniszczeń, które codziennie dotykają przyrodę i ich katastrofalnych konsekwencji. Nie można zmienić świata, ale moż-na zmienić samego siebie – swój stosunek do przyrody, codzienne przyzwyczajenia i podejście do edukacji.
Niech motto zawarte w tym wstępie, słowa Aldousa Huxleya, autora słynnej książki z gatunku science fiction pt. Nowy wspaniały świat1, przeniosą nas w realny świat indywidualnych i zespołowych działań na rzecz ochrony bogactwa życia – bio-różnorodności. Jest to możliwe dzięki wysiłkom naukowców i nauczycieli, którzy poprzez stosowną edukację i komunikaty medialne starają się budować spójny, ho-listyczny obraz świata. Brakuje komunikatów, które potrafiłyby połączyć w sposób interdyscyplinarny pozorne sprzeczności, takie jak np. wzrost potrzeb i konieczność ograniczeń, rozród i selekcja, zagrożenie i bezpieczeństwo.
Zróbmy krok naprzód…
Katarzyna Potyrała
Literatura
Giordan A., 1998, Apprendre!, Débats Belin.
Kalinowska A. (red.), 2011a, Wybrane zagadnienia z ekologii i ochrony środowiska. Różnorod-ność biologiczna w wielu odsłonach, Uniwersytet Warszawski, Warszawa.
Kalinowska A., 2011b, Dla trwałości życia – różnorodność biologiczna a dobrostan ludzkości, [w:] A. Kalinowska (red.), Wybrane zagadnienia z ekologii i ochrony środowiska. Różno-rodność biologiczna w wielu odsłonach, Uniwersytet Warszawski, Warszawa.
Kędziora A., Karg J., 2010, Zagrożenia i ochrona różnorodności biologicznej, Nauka, 4, s. 107– 114.
1 Nowy wspaniały świat (ang. Brave New World) – powieść napisana w 1932 roku. Ka-non fantastyki posłużył w niej Huxleyowi jako narzędzie do konfrontacji idei wolności z po-rządkiem, pragmatyzmu z fantazją, indywidualizmu z kulturą społeczności masowej. Huxley stworzył powieść o charakterze proroctwa i przestrogi, którą próbuje ostrzec ludzkość przed utopią przedkładającą trwałą szczęśliwość i wygodę nad wzloty i upadki w świecie pełnym emocji.[6]
Wstęp
Morka D., 2010, Kształtowanie postaw proekologicznych uczniów liceum w ramach Comenius Projecy – Sustainable Energy, [w:] L. Tuszyńska (red.), Edukacja środowiskowa w społe-czeństwie wiedzy, Uniwersytet Warszawski, Warszawa, s. 179–197.
Tuszyńska L., 2008, Diagnoza stanu edukacji środowiskowej społeczności lokalnych w wybra-nych regionach Polski, WUW, Warszawa.
Ustawa z dnia 27 kwietnia 2001 r. Prawo ochrony środowiska, Dz.U. z 2001 r., nr 62, poz. 627.

Wstęp
Nowe tendencje w edukacji stawiają dydaktyków wobec nowych wyzwań. Efekty
nauczania bywają wymierne w różnych dziedzinach, zmiany będące ich wyrazem
ujmowane są w kategoriach wzrostu zakresu przyswojonych informacji i zachowań
oraz w różnicowaniu sposobów operowania nimi. W centrum zainteresowania
dydaktyków od dawna znajduje się materiał nauczania jako element myślenia
ucznia, warunki realizacji założeń procesu kształcenia i wiele problemów psychologicznych,
które odnoszą się do takich zagadnień, jak potrzeby, zainteresowania,
uwaga i organizacja aktywności szkolnej. Dużą wagę przywiązuje się do związków
motywacji z przedmiotem zainteresowań i znaczenia zróżnicowanych elementów
emocjonalnych w procesie uczenia się.
W dotychczasowych badaniach nad programami nauczania biologii i kryteriami
doboru biologicznych treści kształcenia zwracano uwagę m.in.: na wpływ materiału
nauczania na stopień realizacji zakładanych celów nauczania, możliwości
porządkowania pojęć w struktury w oparciu o przestrzeganie logicznych i merytorycznych
zależności między nimi, konieczność uwzględniania wyników badań
w dziedzinie najnowszych gałęzi nauk biologicznych, pogłębianie korelacji wewnątrz-
i międzyprzedmiotowych, potrzeby i sposoby integracji wiedzy nauczania
o przyrodzie. Prowadzone od wielu lat badania ilustrują złożoność relacji między
założeniami programów nauczania a przebiegiem i efektami nauczania na nich
opartego. Unaoczniają również odpowiedzialność autorów programów i nauczycieli
biologii za organizację procesu nauczania i przygotowanie uczniów do dalszej nauki
i zaspokajania potrzeb życiowych.
Coraz częściej powtarzają się pytania (zadawane również przez dydaktyków
biologii na całym świecie) o rodzaj i poziom edukacji przyrodniczej potrzebnej
ludziom do podejmowania społecznych decyzji wymaganych w XXI wieku oraz
o strukturę podstaw wiedzy przyrodniczej uczniów. Przeważa przy tym opinia, że
przyrodnicza edukacja szkolna jest jedynie początkiem ustawicznego kształcenia
mającego trwać przez całe życie.
Problemy badawcze dydaktyki biologii w Polsce w dużej mierze koncentrują
się w ostatnich latach wokół zagadnień związanych z reformą systemu kształcenia
[4] Wstęp
biologicznego i systemu edukacji. Edukacja przyrodnicza na poziomie szkoły podstawowej
stworzyła konieczność podejmowania badań na temat założeń i efektywności
kształcenia zintegrowanego. Przeniesienie wielu znaczących treści nauczania
z poziomu licealnego na poziom gimnazjalny wiązało się z licznymi dyskusjami i pracami
badawczymi na temat prawidłowej dydaktycznej transformacji biologicznych
treści kształcenia na coraz niższe etapy edukacyjne. Nowa podstawa programowa
(2009) zaowocowała zmianą podejścia do wymagań stawianych uczniom. Dała również
zapowiedź dalszych zmian w kolejnych latach jej wprowadzania. Jedną z nich
jest nowy przedmiot licealny przyroda, który wymaga gruntownego opracowania
pod kątem celów i metod nauczania.
Współczesne tendencje do przezwyciężania granic między poszczególnymi
dyscyplinami naukowymi (genetyką, medycyną, fizjologią, embriologią, ekologią,
filozofią, psychologią, etyką) oraz intensywny rozwój nauk z pogranicza różnych
dyscyplin mają wpływ na proces nauczania i uczenia się biologii. Zmuszają bowiem
do integracji opanowywanej przez uczniów wiedzy. Stąd konieczność pogłębionych
badań teoretycznych i empirycznych dotyczących interdyscyplinarnego modelu
kształcenia oraz rozwiązań dydaktycznych mających wpływ na podniesienie efektywności
interdyscyplinarnego nauczania i uczenia się przyrody i biologii na różnych
poziomach kształcenia.
Dzisiejsza debata nad deskryptorami efektów kształcenia i odpowiednimi kompetencjami
uczniów i studentów kierunków przyrodniczych do zastosowania wiedzy
w praktyce otwiera nowe obszary badawcze dotyczące kwalifikacji absolwentów
do uczenia się ustawicznego. Deskryptory efektów kształcenia to punkty odniesień
kwalifikacji, którymi w ramowej strukturze europejskiej są: wiedza i rozumienie
(knowing and understanding), wiedza jak działać (knowing how to act), wiedza jak
być (knowing how to be). Dokumentem, który najbardziej może zmienić podejście
do kształcenia wyższego, jest Ramowa Struktura Kwalifikacji dla Europejskiego
Obszaru Szkolnictwa Wyższego (Framework for Qualifications of EHEA) – drugi dokument
przyjęty w Bergen jako oficjalny dokument Procesu Bolońskiego. Dla dydaktyki
szkoły wyższej oznacza to wejście w nową, obszerną problematykę związaną
z 4 podstawowymi celami kształcenia wyższego, którymi są: (1) przygotowanie absolwentów
do potrzeb europejskiego i krajowego rynku pracy, (2) przygotowanie
absolwentów do roli aktywnego obywatela w demokratycznym społeczeństwie –
krajowym i europejskim, (3) rozwój osobowy, (4) rozwój i podtrzymanie podstaw
wiedzy zaawansowanej. Sugeruje to potrzebę badań dydaktycznych w ramach poszczególnych
przedmiotów kształcenia, pod kątem znaczenia komunikatów naukowych,
dostrzegania związków między nimi a codziennymi problemami oraz sprawności
metapoznawczych warunkujących edukację permanentną.
Praca nad wdrożeniem wymienionych założeń stanowi duże wyzwanie dla
dydaktyków. Dydaktycy biologii zawsze zajmowali się projektowaniem systemu
kształcenia. Owocowało to dobieraniem treści programowych, metod dydaktycznych,
form dydaktycznych oraz kadry nauczającej do pożądanych, zakładanych
efektów kształcenia. Również obecnie nie wydaje się możliwe, aby pracami nad nowymi
podstawami programowymi oraz deskryptorami kształcenia kierowały z powodzeniem
osoby niezwiązane profesjonalnie z dydaktyką ogólną i przedmiotową.
Planowanie dydaktycznego aspektu programu nauczania pociąga za sobą wybór
Wstęp [5]
określonego modelu nauczania/uczenia się lub konieczność świadomego scalania
modeli. Jest to poprzedzone na przykład stawianiem pytań o teorie, zasady naukowe,
genezę, funkcje i znaczenie koncepcji naukowych, zakres pojęć naukowych,
etyczne i socjologiczne implikacje związane z koncepcjami naukowymi itd.
W związku ze zmianami w potrzebach społeczeństwa, określanego u progu
XXI wieku mianem społeczeństwa informacyjnego pojawiają się między innymi pytania:
Czy „cyberstudenci” nowego millenium będą się różnić od wykształconych
na tradycyjnych podręcznikach studentów minionego wieku w swej zdolności do
przetwarzania informacji zawartych w tekście i obrazie dokładnie i ze zrozumieniem?
Jak wykorzystujemy komputery w nauczaniu, by pomóc naszym uczniom
w zintegrowanym uczeniu i uczeniu się ustawicznym? Zagadnienia te stanowią
przykłady problematyki badawczej, która pojawia się w związku z takimi hasłami,
jak: „Nauczyciel epoki cyfrowej”, „Społeczeństwo wiedzy” i „e-edukacja”.
Dostosowanie systemu kreowania wiedzy oraz systemu edukacji do wymogów powstającej
cywilizacji informacyjnej ma na celu wykształcenie człowieka posiadającego
umiejętności kreowania informacji i wiedzy oraz dysponującego zdolnością do ich wykorzystania,
przygotowanego do posługiwania się nowoczesnymi technikami informacyjnymi
i multimedialnymi zarówno w procesie zdobywania wykształcenia, jak i w życiu
społecznym i gospodarczym*.
Trzeba jednak pamiętać, że kształcenie biologiczne powinno zbliżać nabywaną
wiedzę do problemów współczesnego świata, a także wpływać na kształtowanie
osobowości otwartej na zmiany zachodzące w środowisku. Strategia Edukacji dla
Zrównoważonego Rozwoju zakłada, że uczący się na wszystkich poziomach kształcenia
powinni być zachęcani do systematycznego, krytycznego i twórczego myślenia
oraz refleksji zarówno w kontekście lokalnym, jak i globalnym.
Wymaga to zmiany orientacji ze skupiania się wyłącznie na dostarczaniu wiedzy w kierunku
zajmowania się problemami i poszukiwania możliwych rozwiązań. Z tego względu
edukacja utrzymując tradycyjną koncentrację na poszczególnych przedmiotach
powinna jednocześnie otworzyć drzwi na wielo- oraz międzydyscyplinarne badanie
rzeczywistych sytuacji życiowych**.
To są zadania na dziś.
Zagadnienia związane z ochroną i kształtowaniem środowiska przyrodniczego stanowią
obecnie jeden z głównych obszarów zainteresowania społeczeństwa, nauki oraz
edukacji. W polityce państwa edukacja środowiskowa społeczeństwa uznawana jest
za jeden z ważniejszych sposobów realizacji strategii zrównoważonego rozwoju
społecznego i gospodarczego. Poziom świadomości środowiskowej społeczeństwa
jest warunkiem akceptacji tej polityki. Trudno sobie wyobrazić aktywne uczestnictwo
społeczeństwa nawet w najlepiej przygotowanych programach, jeżeli nie zostały
one poparte wcześniejszą edukacją.
* Polska 2025 – długookresowa strategia trwałego i zrównoważonego rozwoju, Rada Ministrów,
Warszawa, 26 lipca 2000 r.
** Strategia Edukacji dla Zrównoważonego Rozwoju, Europejska Komisja Gospodarcza
ONZ, Warszawa 2008.
[6] Wstęp
Edukacja środowiskowa kształtuje całościowy obraz relacji pomiędzy człowiekiem
społeczeństwem i przyrodą, ukazuje zależność człowieka od środowiska oraz
uczy odpowiedzialności za zmiany dokonywane w środowisku. Edukacja o zrównoważonym
rozwoju została po raz pierwszy uznana za sprawę priorytetową w roku
1977. Wtedy właśnie odbyła się konferencja na temat edukacji ekologicznej w Tbilisi
w Gruzji. Konferencja ta zakończyła się przyjęciem deklaracji o wspieraniu edukacji
środowiskowej, która powinna przyczynić się do ochrony środowiska naturalnego
i zachęcać do zachowania naturalnej równowagi w środowisku i podejmowania
działań na rzecz rozwoju społecznego i ekonomicznego. Na szczycie Ziemi w Rio de
Janeiro w 1992 roku powstała Strategia Zrównoważonego Rozwoju i Agenda 21,
czyli program na XXI wiek, w którym po raz pierwszy zaakcentowano znaczenie
edukacji, dydaktyki i technologii informacyjnych w kształtowaniu świadomości ludzi
i całych społeczeństw. Na Szczycie Ziemi w Johannesburgu w 2002 roku okazało
się, że podobnie jak w Polsce, w wielu krajach brakuje konsekwencji w realizacji
założeń strategii zrównoważonego rozwoju, a ekologiczna świadomość społeczna
jest niska, co skutkuje pojawieniem się wielu zagrożeń środowiska przyrodniczego
i zdrowia człowieka. W Johannesburgu pojawiła się koncepcja powołania ogólnoświatowego
projektu: Dekady Edukacji dla Zrównoważonego Rozwoju w celu podniesienia
poziomu i skuteczności edukacji. Koncepcja projektu zakłada, że edukacja
powinna zmierzać do holistycznego powiązania przyrody z jakością życia społeczeństw.
Konsekwencją szczytu w Johannesburgu było spotkanie przedstawicieli
Ministerstw ds. Środowiska oraz Edukacji Europejskiej Komisji Gospodarczej ONZ
w Wilnie w 2005 roku. Tu zapadła decyzja i zobowiązanie do udziału w ogólnoświatowym
projekcie: Dekada Edukacji dla Zrównoważonego Rozwoju 2005–2014.
Wszystkie wymienione zagadnienia znajdują odzwierciedlenie w niniejszym
tomie. Poszczególne artykuły poruszają i sygnalizują wiele dawnych i współczesnych
tendencji w zakresie badań z dydaktyki biologii. Badania te zawsze były i są
głęboko osadzone w określonym kontekście społecznym, co czyni z nich dodatkowo
wyjątkowo cenną analizę uwarunkowań procesów edukacyjnych. Efekt końcowy niniejszej
publikacji zawdzięczamy kooperacji naukowców z 7 polskich uczelni wyższych
(Kraków, Kielce, Lublin, Poznań, Siedlce, Białystok, Warszawa) oraz 4 uczelni
zagranicznych (Genewa, Lyon, Berlin, Oldenburg), lecz przede wszystkim Prof. zw.
dr hab. Wiesławowi Stawińskiemu, który zaszczepił w nas ducha współpracy, wymiany
myśli, idei i dążenia do doskonałości w kształceniu nauczycieli i uczniów na
miarę współczesności.
Praca przygotowana została przez Uczniów i Przyjaciół Pana Profesora
Wiesława Stawińskiego, którzy pragną Mu ją dedykować wraz z serdecznymi podziękowaniami
za lata naukowych kontaktów i twórczych inspiracji.
Katarzyna Potyrała
Introduction
With new tendencies in education, educators and educationalists have to face new
challenges. Effects of teaching may be tangible and measurable in various fields and
subjects; changes resulting from these effects are expressed in such categories as
increase in the range of acquired information and behaviour or skills and as differentiation
in operating them. For a long time, educationalists’ interests have been
focused on the teaching material as an element of students’ thought, on conditions of
implementing the premises of the teaching process and on numerous psychological
problems involving needs, interests, attention and organization of school activity.
Considerable attention is paid to the relations between motivation and the subject
of interest and to the significance of varied emotional elements in the process of
learning.
So far, research on biology curricula and criteria for selecting teaching contents
in biology has focused on the following, such as, inter alia: influence of the teaching
content on the degree of implementation of assumed teaching objectives, possibilities
of organizing concepts into structures on the basis of logical and content-related
dependencies between them, necessity to account for findings in the field of latest
branches of biological sciences, strengthening correlations between and within subjects,
needs for and means of integrating knowledge about natural science teaching.
Longitudinal research demonstrates the complexity of relations between premises
of teaching curricula on the one hand and teaching processes and effects of teaching
following these premises on the other. The research findings also demonstrate the
responsibility of curriculum authors and biology teachers for the organization of the
teaching process and for the preparation of students for further study and satisfying
their basic needs.
More and more frequently questions are asked, also by biology educationalists
all over the world, about what kind of natural science education and what level of it
is need for people to reach social decisions as required in the 21st century. Further,
questions are asked about students’ structure of knowledge base in natural science.
In this context, the prevailing opinion stresses that natural science education at
school is only the beginning of further lifelong learning.
Research problems of biology teaching in Poland over the last few years have,
to a large extent, involved issues related to the reform of the system of biology education
and the reform of the educational system. Natural science education at the
level of primary schools made it necessary to take up research on premises and
effectiveness of the so-called integrated teaching. Moving many significant teaching
[8]
contents from the level of general secondary schools (liceum) to the level of lower
secondary schools (gimnazjum) involved numerous debates and research studies
concerned with adequate educational transformation and transfer of biological teaching
contents to lower educational stages. A new set of programme objectives or
core curriculum (podstawa programowa) (2009) resulted in a changed approach
to students’ requirements. It also signalled further changes in subsequent years of
its implementation. One of the changes includes the introduction of a new subject
Natural Science (Przyroda) in general secondary schools, which requires a thorough
preparation in terms of teaching objectives and methods.
Contemporary trends to overcome barriers between individual scientific disciplines
(genetics, medicine, physiology, ecology, philosophy, psychology, ethics) and
an intense development of sciences at the borders of various disciplines influence
the process of biology teaching and learning. In a way, they necessitate an integration
of knowledge acquired by students. Thus it is crucial to thoroughly investigate,
both theoretically and empirically, issues related to an interdisciplinary education
model and didactic solutions that impact effectiveness of interdisciplinary teaching
and learning of biology and natural science at various educational stages.
The current discussion about descriptors of learining outcomes and relevant
competencies of pupils and students of natural science involving ‘applying knowledge
in practice’ opens new vistas for research concerned with graduates’ qualifications for
lifelong learning. Descriptors of learning outcomes are qualification reference points
that within the European framework structure include: knowing and understanding,
knowing how to act and knowing how to be. A document which can most significantly
change approaches to higher education is Framework for Qualifications of EHEA, the
second document adopted in Bergen as an official document of the Bologna Process.
In the context of higher education didactics, this means entering into a new, broad
problem area related to four basic objectives of higher education such as /1/ preparing
graduates for European and domestic job market, /2/ preparing graduates to
play the role of active citizens in a democratic society, both domestic and European,
/3/ ensuring personal development, /4/ ensuring development and maintenance of
the bases of advanced knowledge. These suggest a need for didactic research within
individual school subjects with regard to the significance of scientific messages, to
the perception of correlation between such messages and everyday problems and to
meta-cognitive skills determining lifelong learning.
Work on implementing the above premises constitutes a considerable challenge
to educationalists. Biology educationalists have always been concerned with designing
teaching systems. This resulted in selecting programme contents, methods
and forms of teaching as well as teaching staff so as to meet the planned teaching
objectives. Also today it does not seem feasible that people who are not professionally
involved in general and subject didactics could successfully manage work on
new programme objectives or core curricula and learning descriptors. The design of
didactic aspects of teaching programmes involves a selection of a specific teaching/
learning model or a necessity of a conscious blending of models. Such decisions are
preceded by inquiring about theories, scientific principles, genesis, function and
meaning of scientific concepts, scope of scientific concepts, ethical and sociological
implications related to scientific concepts, etc.
Introduction [9]
As a result of changes in the needs of society, called an information society at the beginning
of the 21st century, numerous questions arise. For instance, will ‘cyber students’
of the new millennium differ from their colleagues educated on the basis of students textbooks
typical of the previous century when it comes to the ability to process information
included in text and image with precision and understanding? How do we use computers
in education so as to help our pupils with integrated learning? And with lifelong learning?
Such issues are examples of research interests that are brought up in the context of
such buzz words and phrases as “Teachers of the digital epoch”, “Information society”
and “E-education”.
The adaptation of the system of knowledge creation and the educational system to the
needs of an emergent information civilization aims at educating an individual who possesses
skills of knowledge and information creation and who has the ability to use them;
further, the individual should be prepared to use modern information and multimedia
technologies both in the process of education and in social and economic life*.
However, it is relevant to bear in mind that biological education should bring the
knowledge to be acquired closer to the problems of the contemporary world as well as
should shape personalities open to react to changes in the environment. The premises of
the Strategy of Education for Sustainable Development state that learners at all educational
stages should be encouraged to engage in systematic, critical and creative thinking
as well as in reflection, both in the local and global contexts.
This necessitates a change in orientation from knowledge provision only to problem
orientation and search for possible solutions. For this reason, while maintaining a traditional
focus on individual subjects, education should at the same time open the door for
multi- and interdisciplinary investigations of real-life situations.**
These are today’s tasks.
Issues related to the protection and shaping of the natural environment are currently
one of the main concerns of society, science and education. In state policies, society’s
environmental education is considered one of the more significant means of implementing
the strategy of sustainable social and economic development. The level of society’s
environmental awareness is a condition of accepting such policies. It is difficult to imagine
society’s active participation in even best prepared programmes if such programmes
have not been supported earlier by education.
Environmental education shapes a holistic image of relations between human beings,
society and nature, it shows humans’ dependence on the natural environment and
teaches responsibility for changes carried out in the environment.
Education about sustainable development was first considered a matter o priority in
1977. It was then that a conference on ecological education was held in Tbilisi, Georgia.
The conference ended with adopting a declaration to support natural science education
* Poland 2025 – Long-term Strategy for Sustainable Development (Polska 2025 –
długookresowa strategia trwałego i zrównoważonego rozwoju), The Council of Ministers,
Warsaw, July 26, 2000.
** Strategy of Education for Sustainable Development, United Nations Economic Commission,
Warsaw 2008.
[10]
which should contribute to the protection of the natural environment and encourage people
to maintain balance in the environment and to take action for the social and economic
development.
The Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1992 saw the emergence of the Strategy for
Sustainable Development and Agenda 21, that is an action plan for the 21st century where,
for the first time, the focus was on the significance of education, didactics and information
technology in shaping consciousness of individuals and entire societies.
At the Johannesburg Earth Summit in 2002 it turned out that in Poland, as in
many other countries, there is not enough consistency in implementing the premises
of the strategy of sustainable development and that society’s ecological awareness
is low which results in the appearance of numerous threats to the natural environment
and people’s health. In Johannesburg an idea was developed to call into being
a world-wide project Decade of Education for Sustainable Development in order to
improve the quality and efficiency of education. The project’s concept is based on
the premises that education should aim at holistically joining nature with society’s
quality of life. The Johannesburg summit led to a high-level meeting of representatives
of Education and Environment Ministries of the United Nations Economic
Commission for Europe held in Vilnius in 2005. It was there that the decision was
reached and commitment was made to participate in the world-wide project Decade
of Education for Sustainable Development 2005-2014.
All of the mentioned issues are reflected in this volume. Individual contributions
signal and discuss many tendencies in the field of biology education research,
both traditional and contemporary ones. Research on biology didactics has always
been deeply grounded in a given social context which additionally provides valuable
insight into conditioning of educational processes.
The final outcome of this publication is owed to academic cooperation of scientist
from seven universities from across Poland (Kraków, Kielce, Lublin, Poznań,
Siedlce, Białystok, Warsaw) and four from abroad (Geneva, Lyon, Berlin, Oldenburg).
Above all, it is owed to Professor dr. hab. Wiesław Stawiński who instilled in us a spirit
of cooperation, of exchanging thoughts and ideas, and of striving for perfection in
educating teachers and students to meet the demands of contemporary times.
The volume has been prepared by Students and Friends of Professor Wiesław
Stawiński who wish to dedicate it to Him with warm gratitude and thanks for years
of academic cooperation and creative inspiration.
Katarzyna Potyrała