Distribution of different biological disciplines in secondary school biological practicals in Czech Republic
Abstract
There is an urgent need to get young people engaged in at least some basic scientific principles as need more (bio)technologies for our future life. One of the ways to do so is to use more practical courses when teaching science.
Several studies have shown that practical courses have positive influence on both science achievement and attitude towards science. We decided to examine the proportion of different biological disciplines in high-school practical courses and find out whether there are some disciplins taught without practical courses (only during theoretical lessons).
To understand situation in Czech Republic we prepared and tested questionnaire for high-school biology teachers. This small sample showed there are indeed some disciplines, like virology, that are taught only abstractedly and some others like molecular biology and genetics or ecology that are tought mainly abstractedly.