Three questions to Professor Jolanta Choińska-Mika
- Published on Thursday, 29 March 2012 22:48
A student is not able to solve a problem from the Teaching Tools Database. Does this mean that he/she cannot think for himself/herself? What do we do then?
If a student cannot handle it, it is probably because he is not used to this kind of tasks. These are not difficult problems - they are based on the content of the core curriculum, and so, I hope, are done in the classroom. However, the way in which the student must use his/her knowledge, is actually non-standard. Hence, initially there may be some issues. How to deal with them? By explaining what the objective of the task was and by giving the student another task of similar type. We added comments to each problem that show what they consist in and what it is designed to check. Some comments also contain tips on how to interpret and resolve any issues that students may have with a given problem.
Who are the problems prepared by the IBE aimed at? Is it only the third grade lower secondary school students?
For the third grade students it will be a great way to test their knowledge and prepare for a test of generic skills that awaits them in April. But the problems can be solved also by students of lower grades, for example, when discussing the material to which the task concerned refers. To make the work easier for teachers, the tasks in the Teaching Tools Database have been divided according to the requirements of the curriculum, so they will not have problems with matching the tasks to the lesson topics. In addition, we have prepared a variety of tasks – to solve at home, for tests or to be done during lessons. The last of the mentioned types of tasks requires more time to solve or even help from the teacher. In short, our sets have a broad application, and everything depends on the teacher.
When can we expect tasks for upper secondary schools?
I hope soon, but we prefer to wait with developing them until the concept of the matriculation examination according to the new core curriculum crystallizes. We do not want to have a false start. Meanwhile, I can announce another thing. At the beginning of the next year, a book prepared by the IBE, containing lesson scenarios in history and natural science for secondary school students, comes out. One element of the scenarios are tasks that are included in the Teaching Tools Database. This way we want to create a complete tool – not just for testing students' skills in independent thinking, analysis and argumentation, but also for helping them to develop these skills..
IBE director is a member of the Council for Economic Education
- Published on Wednesday, 07 December 2011 03:17
Marek Belka, president of the National Bank of Poland, has invited Michał Federowicz, director of IBE, to join the Council for Economic Education in recognition of his professional knowledge and experience. The inaugural meeting of the Council took place on September 1 in the headquarters of the National Bank of Poland in Warsaw.
.IBE in Berlin on standardization of demographic characteristics in research
- Published on Wednesday, 07 December 2011 03:33
An international conference on the problems of standardizing demographic characteristics in research took place on 30-31 August 2012 at the Wissenschaftszentrum für Sozialforschung in Berlin. It was intended to have the character of a bilateral meeting of researchers from Germany and Poland, devoted to a discussion on the solutions implemented during research carried out in both countries. However, the considerable significance of the subject of the conference meant that researchers came from several other countries, including the Czech Republic, Slovenia and Luxembourg.
.ESRA Congress in Lausanne
- Published on Wednesday, 07 December 2011 03:34
The fourth Conference of the European Survey Research Association (ESRA) took place on 17-23 July 2011 in Lausanne. The ESRA is a young organization, which was established in 2004 on the initiative of Dutch researcher and statistician Mr Willem Saris. Mr Saris has initiated many projects, without which modern research would not be what it is at present. He is particularly willing to take up the challenges in the development of new technologies which are presented to researchers in social sciences. At the beginning of the 90s he laid the foundations for computer programs which assisted in conducting telephone interviews. It is no surprise that companies from all over Europe have been travelling to Holland for software for CATI research.
.EDULEARN Conference 2011 in Barcelona
- Published on Wednesday, 07 December 2011 03:36
From 4 to 6 July 2011 representatives of IBE Science Section took part in the International Conference on Education and New Learning Technologies (EDULEARN 2011) in Barcelona in Spain, organised by the International Association of Technology, Education and Development (IATED). More than a thousand representatives from six continents , were invited to take part in four poster sessions and more than eighty discussion sessions.
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