Science Education in Hungary
Science Education in Hungary

Summary/Abstract: Examination of the efficacy of science education has been in the forefront of domestic and international research in recent decades. Thirty years ago the efficacy of science education in Hungary was internationally recognised. However, there signs as early as the 1990s that student outcomes were declining in Hungarian students’ ability to apply knowledge and problemsolving. Based on the results of the PISA assessments, there were no considerable changes in Hungarian students’ knowledge. Besides the overall performance which corresponded to the average, however, it could be observed that Hungarian students’ ability to apply knowledge related to experiments and measurements lagged behind that of students in other countries. Based on the results of the 2009 assessment, there is a relatively small number of students with outstanding abilities in the Hungarian student population. The decline in outcomes in 2012 could be explained with the greater number of students with poorer outcomes. Research confirmed that this decline in outcomes can be associated with the predominantly theoretical knowledge of our students and the low efficiency of their ability to apply knowledge. Due to a lack of practice and the employment of ill-matching learning strategies, a more thorough processing of the enormous amount of lexical knowledge taught at school does not take place. All this is further confounded by the fact that our students’ sincere interest in sciences decreases with age. Investigations performed over the past years have confirmed that, in order to increase interest in knowledge taught and to improve outcomes, changes need to be introduced in science education.

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