Workshop – Presentation of the concept of Scientix and discussion about STEM education in Macedonia, especially about implementing coding in primary school curricula – status and perspectives, was conducted on 15 and 16.12.2017 at Gardenia, Veles, Macedonia.
At the workshop teachers, schools’ managers and policy makers had the opportunity to discuss about situation in STEM education in our country and perspectives. Short presentation was given to the stakeholders elaborating the role, support and resources provided by Scientix, as global innovation in education, which promote and support cooperation among STEM teachers and other STEM professionals across Europe.
Does the innovations in STEM education in Macedonia – changes in the curricula, using different methodological approaches and innovative use of ICT, resulted with the increased students’ interest and motivation for STEM education?, are just some of the questions that were discussed during the workshop.
The accent on the workshop was put on the implementing coding in primary school – status and perspectives for increasing teaching quality, students’ interest, motivation and achievements. Implementing coding as separate subject from the lower grades, challenges and barriers that raise in front of the teachers, the suitability of the teaching staff, the existence of qualitative resources, the need coding to be seen as the development of logical thinking among students, the use of educational games in the teaching process, are some of the discussions that were carried out during the workshop.
Participants were satisfied from the workshop and they agreed that in order to have good innovation in the teaching all the involved parties must work together: teachers, school managers and stakeholders. There were a lot of views how to implement coding in primary school. Most of them agreed that the benefits from implementing coding are huge for developing 21st century skills and it should be implemented starting from developing logical thinking through game in lower grades until more advanced programming in the higher grades in primary school.
