Societal expectations and the scientifically competent students

U tekstu se daje pregled tema vezanih uz operativno određenje prirodoznanstvenih kompetencija za obvezno i opće obrazovanje. Slijedom uvođenja pojma “kompetencije” u europski obrazovni diskurs analiziraju se njegove poveznice sa srodnim pojmovima, te odnos prema “prirodoznanstvenoj pismenosti”. Pozivi na razvoj “prirodoznanstvene pismenosti” prikazuju se kao iskorak iz usvajanja disciplinski značajnih činjenica, a prema modelu obrazovanja kao razvoju kompetencija poželjnih za ispunjenje osobnih stremljenja i društvenih potreba. Posebno se analizira utjecaj društvenih potreba na operacionalizaciju kompetencijskih modela, te problematizira uloga stavova učenika prema predmetnim sadržajima u svjetlu primjera operacionalizacije za potrebe OECD PISA testiranja, u kojem kompetenciju pojmovno određuju i znanja i stavovi. Također se upozorava i na rezultate istraživanja koja ukazuju na negativan stav učenika u Hrvatskoj prema prirodoslovnim predmetima.The article surveys the topics related to operationalisation of natural science competences in compulsory primary education. Following the introduction of the term ‘competences’ into European educational discourse, its relations with the similar concepts and the notion of ‘scientific literacy’ are analyzed. The calls for the introduction of scientific literacy as the educational aim are shown to be the conceptual origin of the step out of the appropriation of the disciplinarily significant facts and towards the model of education as development of competences required for fulfillment of personal aspirations and societal needs. The influence of the scientific literacy drive on the development of the competence-based educational models is surveyed, especially with respect to development of students’ attitudes towards content of science subjects. The latter is well exemplified in the competence-model operationalisation through the OECD PISA testing, where knowledge and attitudes alike define the scientific competence. A warning is raised concerning the empirical research findings about the negative attitude of Croatian students towards the natural science subjects in the primary school curriculum