Changing Horizons in Geography Education - HERODOT Network ...

delivery, and the methods of the pathway evaluation. The last stage of preparationsconsists in assigning tasks to each teacher and planning the schedule. Thusthe prepared project can be finalised. The preparatory process described above isillustrated in Figure 5.Figure 5. Steps in the process of preparing an interdisciplinary (cross-curricular) educationalpathway.Interdisciplinary pathways have been present in Polish school merely for six years.Working out the right methodological solutions required a huge effort from theteachers and the whole school community. However, the latest school educationprogramme project, planned to be implemented in the school year of 2006/2007,proposes that interdisciplinary pathways be removed from the curriculum. Such aprospect inspires reflection on the value of such form of classes. The question arises,what are its negative aspects? What problems have been created for schools by theintroduction of educational pathways? What are the facts that negate the sense oftheir further existence? It seems that for the „losses” the following arguments canbe presented:• Introducing interdisciplinary pathways meant introducing new contents, which inturn meant that pupils needed to stay longer at school, or else that some subjectscontents already taught needed to be left out.• A number of pathways at each educational level would indicate that one teachermay be involved in the implementation of several. It is difficult to imagine howhe/she could synchronise work in several teams.• Teachers of some subjects are not equally engaged in pathway development andimplementation. For example geographers, biologists, or historians, on account75