ScienceDirect Contemporary Pedagogical Approaches for Developing Higher Level Thinking on Science Classes

Abstract The school is the mirror of a society. To create and develop good education means to realize objectives that would reflect its sense. In current education, the hierarchy of values that should be set and implemented is asymmetrically positioned. In successful school, the student should become the meaning and the purpose of the content that will introduce him/her into the world of competition and competence in order to enable successful communication with it. How can a teaching lesson become a workshop in which new ideas, creative solutions, new forms of research and new knowledge are being undercrossed?! The research that has been done in this paper aims to investigate the introduction of practical teaching and application of reforms in teaching biology in the six primary urban schools in Stip, R. Macedonia. Data were collected from semi-structured interviews made with 11 experienced teachers of biology and were analyzed their class planes. The results showed that teachers occasionally introduced a small number of enhanced instructional strategies that explicitly match the formal curriculum in their classes, such as: presenting, analyzing and generalizing experimental results from practical teaching of biology in various forms. However, teachers have used fewer strategies that target encouraging higher level thinking, such as to induce students to ask questions or to learn about problem solving strategies used during lessons. Differences were identified between teachers regarding the use of rich teaching strategies during lessons, and their beliefs about the abilities of students to develop the ability to think at a higher level. 703 Sonja Petrovska and Snezana Stavreva Veselinovska / Procedia -Social and Behavioral Sciences 92 ( 2013 ) 702 -710 1. Introduction to the research problem In order to discuss the issue related to the current context in which modern education has been affirmed and built, firstly the identification of the factors that determine the essence of the integration of young people in society and their role in creating change in it should be determined. Very often it is said that the school is a mirror of society. And it is not just an empty phrase aiming to create and develop modern education, because to create and develop modern education is to realize goals that will reflect the social meaning and the vision of development. In our schools the student, with all his/her potential, is treated as the meaning and the purpose of curriculum content, instead of being the subject who will actively participate in the awakening and development of their own creative minds, critical thought, public speech, or more specifically in the continuous creation of lasting cultural values and life in general. The declared fundamental goals of education sounded nice in the distant 1997 on the Paris International Conference of UNESCO and are still acceptable today. They completely refer to the student who needs to learn how to study, to work, to live, and to live with others. But at the current moment as well it cannot be said that they have been accomplished successfully enough. Despite intensive reforms in the education sector and criticism from those who, one way or another, are interested in the education of children and young adults (parents, teachers, students, politicians, businessmen ...) are still looking for a model that will enable school to approach students. In this search, the attitudes and knowledge of science and practice that the teacher is the key factor and the carrier of changes in the school are quite clear. But at the same time, unambiguous and public criticism by teachers is directed towards the rigid curriculum, inconsistencies of the measures to evaluate the quality of teacher work, suspension of pedagogical autonomy by promoting strict didactic-methodical models through various training that only requires teachers to work rather than to be instructed in the direction -why are promoted models helpful, which the educational benefits of the same education are, and, finally, the tendency to education grounded on "evidence" that often administratively occupy teachers, so instead of essentially committing to monitoring, testing and assessment, they make a written record of these. So, instead of the declared paradigm about reflective teachers, we get teachers artisans whose work has little science, art and soul, but very much routine. Education is a complex, subtle and long-term process, and that is way it is difficult to quantify precisely which factor, at what time and to what extent influences the overall development of the individual, so quantification is not sufficient and it is not a priority. In education, the routine is a factor that negatively affects the quality of the "product" (student development). Systematically seen, feedback information and planning are key tools for increasing the predictive power of the teacher in connection with his/her decisions about pattern of work in the classroom and we have to practice these, but the problem is how to win over our children and young people to become partners in their education for a happy and fruitful life, learn how to reaffirm habits and motivation for the development of the spirit. Our extensive hands-on experience and scientific research / teaching gives us the right to say that lectures must be set up as a workshop in which new and diverse ideas, creative solutions, new forms of research and new knowledge will crosswise. Teaching classes must be the main field in which the teacher will show his/her skills and commitment through the intersection of knowledge, skills and qualitative personal features. The global aim of primary education in the Republic of Macedonia is to enable students to adopt a system of knowledge and skills for independent, effective, and creative activity in the social and natural environment. (Concept of the nine-year primary education). According to this global aim outlined in the Concept for the nine-year primary education in the Republic of Macedonia over natural sciences which are taught according to the curriculum in Biology, Chemistry and Physics (5, 6, 7, 8 and 9 grade), it is necessary to achiev