ABSTRACT
In Slovenia, the recent curricular reform has set itself very ambitious goals, such as to raise overall quality and long-term effects of students’ knowledge, to develop strategies of creative, critical, independent thinking, and to foster a deeper understanding of problems. But the strategies to bring about the necessary changes in the teaching and learning process (for example, less transmission and more student-centred teaching, leading to more active learning and higher cognitive processes) have not yet been elaborated. New curricula, regulations and textbooks cannot by themselves lead to changes; the increasing importance of external examinations (testing) can even prevent them or lead in the opposite direction by encouraging low-level, surface learning.
