Page 34 - Šolsko polje, XXX, 2019, št. 5-6: Civic, citizenship and rhetorical education in a rapidly changing world, eds. Janja Žmavc and Plamen Mirazchiyski
P. 34
šolsko polje, letnik xxx, številka 5–6
be done within each school’s teacher collective, at least on the level of
subject groups, desired curricular outcomes for each level (grade) should
be planned ahead, incorporating or linking cross-curricular content
with all other school content and activities. The previous monitoring of
Health Education and CCE implementation showed that school collec-
tives are not very familiar with such a group method of planning and only
some portion of schools are successfully operationalizing cross-curricu-
lum contents through school level planning. Therefore the vast majority
of teachers are only formally writing down in administrative documen-
tation the connection between the theme from their obligatory subject
to something similar or overlapping in the cross-curricular theme and
noting it as CCE content that has been taught to students. Very often
students are not even aware that these connections are made with par-
ticular cross-curricular theme, and only the teacher’s note of the class re-
flects that. Conscious teachers are coping with this semi-obligatory and
semi-visible approach very well, as they would with any other challenge,
but those not willing to implement additional cross-curricular contents
(for any possible reason) have a large space available for not having to do
anything substantial. In lower grades (ISCED 1), the real process of inter-
disciplinary flows more smoothly due to the fact that there is one home-
room teacher and program that has many themes corresponding to con-
tents of cross-curricular themes for younger students. When it comes to
higher level (ISCED 2 and 3) subject, classes take most of the daily capac-
ities and cross-curricular content are usually being ‘squeezed’ into home-
room classes (one school hour per week) depending on the issue that the
particular class is having. For example, absenteeism could be connected
to Lear how to learn; organizing field trips could be connected to Entre-
preneurship or Civic and Citizenship Education if it includes visits to some
state institutions; in the upper grades, the problem of smoking (addic-
tions) is connected to Health, etc. In short, cross-curricular themes are
being addressed when it is convenient to take everything else from the
schedule into consideration first.
Although there was enough theoretical power and practical interna-
tional experience behind every form of CCE delivery – as a separate sub-
ject (obligatory or optional), as cross-curricular content or through the
school experience on the whole – Croatia has repeatedly opted for the
cross-curricular approach in the last twenty years. There were two exper-
imental implementations of CCE as a separate school subject but those
were on voluntary school/student basis, so the methodology was limited
in many aspects. Also, implemented curriculums (the ones from 2012 and
2014) had a very confined time before other documents or directions were
32
be done within each school’s teacher collective, at least on the level of
subject groups, desired curricular outcomes for each level (grade) should
be planned ahead, incorporating or linking cross-curricular content
with all other school content and activities. The previous monitoring of
Health Education and CCE implementation showed that school collec-
tives are not very familiar with such a group method of planning and only
some portion of schools are successfully operationalizing cross-curricu-
lum contents through school level planning. Therefore the vast majority
of teachers are only formally writing down in administrative documen-
tation the connection between the theme from their obligatory subject
to something similar or overlapping in the cross-curricular theme and
noting it as CCE content that has been taught to students. Very often
students are not even aware that these connections are made with par-
ticular cross-curricular theme, and only the teacher’s note of the class re-
flects that. Conscious teachers are coping with this semi-obligatory and
semi-visible approach very well, as they would with any other challenge,
but those not willing to implement additional cross-curricular contents
(for any possible reason) have a large space available for not having to do
anything substantial. In lower grades (ISCED 1), the real process of inter-
disciplinary flows more smoothly due to the fact that there is one home-
room teacher and program that has many themes corresponding to con-
tents of cross-curricular themes for younger students. When it comes to
higher level (ISCED 2 and 3) subject, classes take most of the daily capac-
ities and cross-curricular content are usually being ‘squeezed’ into home-
room classes (one school hour per week) depending on the issue that the
particular class is having. For example, absenteeism could be connected
to Lear how to learn; organizing field trips could be connected to Entre-
preneurship or Civic and Citizenship Education if it includes visits to some
state institutions; in the upper grades, the problem of smoking (addic-
tions) is connected to Health, etc. In short, cross-curricular themes are
being addressed when it is convenient to take everything else from the
schedule into consideration first.
Although there was enough theoretical power and practical interna-
tional experience behind every form of CCE delivery – as a separate sub-
ject (obligatory or optional), as cross-curricular content or through the
school experience on the whole – Croatia has repeatedly opted for the
cross-curricular approach in the last twenty years. There were two exper-
imental implementations of CCE as a separate school subject but those
were on voluntary school/student basis, so the methodology was limited
in many aspects. Also, implemented curriculums (the ones from 2012 and
2014) had a very confined time before other documents or directions were
32
