The development of grammar school chemistry curricula in Serbia in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries

As a separate school subject Chemistry has been taught in Serbia since 1874 In the then valid Instructions to Schools it was stressed that chemistry should be taught by the use of experiments. The curricular aims from 1927 also stress experimental approach. The accompanying methodological instructions insisted on students' active involvement, and stressed the need for students to develop their perceptive and manual skills and analytical thinking, and acquire knowledge through active, independent work and thinking. The programmes from 1945 and 1947 state that, by performing experiments, students gain deeper, long-lasting knowledge and skills, and that experimenting and logical reasoning, as basic inductive methods, should predominantly be applied in teaching. Also, students were expected to acquire certain 'handling skills'. In the period of work-directed education the curricula defined (besides the aim that...extending the knowledge of chemistry should enhance the formation of dialectically materialistic worldview among students) also the tasks, operational tasks, demonstrational experiments, practical exercises, additional classes and free time activities (contests, additional lectures, special interest circles, quizzes discussions..). During the last seventeen years of the twentieth century grammar school Chemistry curricula were not further developed and they differed much both in structure and contents from currently used curricula for the same type of secondary school in the world.
Hemija se kao samostalan predmet predaje od 1874. godine. U tadašnjim uputstvima školama naglašeno je da se hemija predaje s eksperimentima. U cilju učenja hemije u programu iz 1927. godine istaknut je eksperimentalni pristup. Metodička uputstva koja su usledila isticala su princip samoradnje učenika, potrebe da učenici aktivnim i samostalnim radom i razmišljanjem stiču dalja znanja, razvijaju perceptivne i manuelne sposobnosti, logičko mišljenje. Programi iz 1945. i 1947. navode da se zahvaljujući izvođenju eksperimenata stiču dublja, trajnija i kvalitetnija znanja i umenja i da posmatranje, eksperimentisanje i logičko rasuđivanje, kao osnovne induktivne metode, treba najviše da budu zastupljene u nastavi. Takođe, da učenici treba da steknu i izvesnu ručnu veštinu. Programi usmerenog obrazovanja definisali su osim cilja (...proširivanje znanja iz hemije treba da doprinese formiranju dijalektičko-materijalističkog pogleda na svet) i zadatke, operativne zadatke, demonstracione oglede, praktične vežbe, dodatnu nastavu i slobodne aktivnosti (takmičenja, dodatna predavanja, kružoci, kvizovi, diskusije..). Poslednjih 17 godina nastavni programi hemije za gimnaziju nisu unapređivani i veoma se razlikuju no strukturi i sadržaju od savremenih programa hemije za ovaj tip srednje škole u svetu.