Changing Horizons in Geography Education - HERODOT Network ...

of the contents they teach, participate in many more educational pathways thanphysics or PE teachers. How can this extra work be related to salary?• Pathway implementation is a huge burden for teachers. Even if already existingcurricula are employed, they need to be modified in order to fit a given school’sconditions.• As schools are free to produce the contents in the way they choose, the resultsobtained in different schools cannot be compared.• If a pupil moves to another school, the consistency of his/her education is interrupted.• There is no ideal form of educational pathways implementation because:– In the case of selecting the one-subject model, the noble idea of multi-levelproblem examination remains in the sphere of fiction. Not many teacherspossess a knowledge which is broad enough to present a holistic picture ofthe world. When that variant is adopted, despite the assumptions made, thepathway contents is rendered one-sidedly and usually consists merely of extrainformation on a given subject. There is little integration or inter-disciplinarityinvolved.– If the multi-subject model is employed, in which the pathway contents is realisedwithin several separate subjects, organisational problems cannot be avoided.In this model it is important to follow the chronology of contents, so that theirlogic is preserved. Thus, one unpredictable incident, such as for example theillness of one of the teachers, is enough for the whole plan to be upset.– In the multi-subject model there is also a considerable risk of individual teachers’providing a superficial approach. To save time, they might skip some of thepathway contents or do it in a narrow way. As the responsibility for the pathwayimplementation is shared by many people, it is easy to miss out things.– Pathway implementation with the use of the block model takes a lot of extratime. Preparation and conducting of separate, extra-curricular classes, is done atthe cost of teachers’ free time. Hence, one more problem arises: how to includetheir work in the duty load, and how to assess each person’s contribution.• Co-operation among teachers may prove difficult, because of personality differences.Within the team working on a given pathway conflicts may arise, that mayinfluence the educational effects.The practice shows, however, that interdisciplinary pathways are also quite beneficial.On the side of „gains”, the following facts should be listed:• Proper pathway completion allows the pupil to get to know a given phenomenonin a holistic way, shedding light on its many aspects. This makes it possible for thepupil to notice various types of interrelationships and interdependencies amongthe elements of reality. Even in the one-subject model, in which one teacher isresponsible for implementing a given pathway, such an approach to the contentsis possible. A teacher conscious of his/her tasks will broaden his/her knowledgeand use it in the best way possible.• Interdisciplinary pathways prevent the doubling of so called „borderline” problemswhich may be present in several areas.76