Biology contents in curricula of compulsory education in Serbia, Finland and England

Abstract

At this moment in time, which is marked by extremely negative human influences on the environment, and when a sustainable development of nature is needed, school has a significant role in developing students' knowledge, skills and attitudes towards natural sciences. In European countries, students gain biological knowledge during primary school either through integrated or specific subjects. This paper contains the results of a comparative analysis of the biological content in teaching programs and curricula in three European countries - Serbia, Finland and England. In Serbia, biological contents are included in two integrated subjects (The World Around Us and Nature and Society) during the first cycle of compulsory education, while during the second cycle they are included in a separate subject - biology - and are linearly arranged. Throughout compulsory education in Finland and England, biological contents are concentrically arranged and are realized through the students' research work in their surroundings in several school subjects.