Abstract:

From 2017, new core curricula for primary and secondary schools are introduced in Poland. Their creation was initiated by Ministry of National Education. The creators of the programs are groups of experts appointed by the Ministry. The authors of this article are just such experts in the geography Curriculum Design. The purpose of this article is to present some experiences related to the creation of a geographic education for primary and secondary school. We want to say in it not only about the creation of the Curriculum, but to present the main problems associated with their implementation in school practice.

The new core curriculum introduces fundamental changes in the understanding of the function and educational role of geography. It assumed the assumption that the main goal of geography as the subject of education is integrating student's knowledge about the natural environment with socio-economic and humanistic knowledge. Geography in new school education responds to important questions related to the problems of contemporary human existence, its functioning in the natural, socio-economic and political environment. The leading, new goals of geographic education is to understand the connections in the natural environment and the relationship between nature and man. The core curriculum creates a framework for introducing the foundations of practical knowledge in geographical education. The new core curriculum is particularly conducive to shaping skills. Very important skills are: critical and creative thinking - formulating hypotheses, verifying and solving problems, evaluating and evaluating phenomena, formulating statements about regularities, making generalizations, and forecasting. Particularly noteworthy is the emphasis on the use of information and communication technologies and geoinformation (GIS) in learning about the world, acquiring and creating spatial data sets, their analysis and presentation.

A novelty in the core curriculum are mandatory field activities. In a broader scope than before, it is necessary to prepare the student to conduct observations and measurements in the field, to use basic research methods: interviews, surveys or cartographic analysis. The authors of the core curriculum wanted to create a modern, better geographic education program, including a wider use of field activities. But with this is a big problem. That is why they were carried out among the geography teachers of the study, which answer the following questions: How often does the teacher conduct geographic classes in the field? In which places? What topics are implemented in the field? What methods does the teacher use? What problems does a geography teacher encounter during a field lesson? How does the teacher assess the new core curriculum? What does the teacher think about the obligation to conduct fieldwork?

The results of these studies allow to plan effective activities in the field of support, help and further education of teachers in the implementation of activities in the field.

Keywords:

Teachers, core curriculum, geography teaching.