IntroductionOver the last 20 years, Poland, like a number of other countries in Central, Eastern and South-Eastern Europe, has gone through a major transition process in which the challenges for education in terms of new approaches to learning and teaching have been compounded by broader changes such as the democratisation of structures and processes and the major economic and social changes. Throughout the period, expectations have been substantial and difficult to satisfy. This article, written by authors who were prominent actors in the education change process in Poland, is a case study that examines the early stages of significant shifts in the learning and teaching process, the stepped approach that was taken and the different international influences. It was decided to focus on the top-down, policy level actions in order to trace how influences have shaped current policy on outcomes-based approaches and key competences, which are increasingly implemented in schools today.The Polish education and training system has been through a complex series of reforms, many simultaneously. The introduction of outcome-based approaches and key competences is part of much broader reforms that have affected mindsets and attitudes by addressing the structure of the system (e.g. the length of compulsory education), school governance, the roles of principals and teachers, teacher training, etc. Parents' expectations have evolved and students are growing up in a much more connected environment with Internet and social networks and an exponential development of access to ICT and the need for digital competences and a range of key competences for lifelong learning and work (Gordon et al., 2009). Although change has taken place at all levels and in all sub-sectors of the system, this article focuses on general education in primary and secondary schools. BackgroundPolish schools in the second half of the 20th century were institutions where encyclopaedism, teacher-oriented classrooms, and lack of autonomy and democratic procedures prevailed.This was mainly the result of the political system called 'real' socialism. The political and economic transformation of 1989 was welcomed by progressive education circles in Poland. It was hoped that it would result in rapid and effective changes in the organisation and functioning of education. However, changes were introduced in education and curriculum at a much slower pace than in other spheres of life and have been instituted in stages. Initially, the focus was on eliminating elements of the old system which hindered the operation of schools in a democratic society. The following changes were introduced (Wisniewski, 2001): • adjusting curricula: eliminating elements of ideological indoctrination and biased views of history;

PrefaceAfter the discovery of supersymmetry in the seventies of the 20th century, there was a rapid development of the ideas related to the unification of gauge interactions with gravity within the framework of superstring theory. The application of superstring theory to cosmology began with the most explored example of the pre-big-bang scenario of M. Gasperini and G. Veneziano of 1991 and on. From superstring theory the theoreticians were led into brane theory, or rather to M-theory, which also became an inspiration to cosmologists. The Hořava-Witten and Randall-Sundrum brane scenarios, together with ekpyrotic/cyclic scenario, were the most successful results of these investigations. Since these scenarios are based on theories of the unification of all the fundamental interactions in the universe, it was natural to call them cosmology of fundamental theories, fundamental cosmology or, in short, COSMOFUN.The idea of fundamental cosmology brought together a group of European cosmologists during the last couple of years: the informal COSMOFUN activity was designed to form a more regular group that could effectively collaborate, train young scientists, organize conferences and workshops. One of these pioneering activities was the "Pomeranian Workshop in Fundamental Cosmology" which took place in September 2005 in Pobierowo -a beautiful resort at the Baltic sea in the north-western part of Poland -the region called Pomerania. As an organizer I noticed that the participants enjoyed this area very much.During the workshop, which was attended by about 30 scientists, ideas in fundamental cosmology were exchanged and vividly discussed. There were invited lectures as well as short talks. The former have been collected in the form of review papers and are presented in the current issue.

The article presents an analysis of data gathered to assess the package Playing with pictograms. The package is intended as support for the development of symbolic language skills by influencing the way teachers teach mathematics during the first years of primary school. The research was conducted using a cluster-randomised repeated measures experimental design with a control group. The main research problem investigated change in the level of relevant student skills, specifically associated with the package. IRT modeling and multilevel regression were employed in the analysis. Results demonstrated significant improvement in the use of symbolic language derived from the package.

To understand the formation of scientific committees within the structure of the Polish Academy of Sciences (in Polish: Polska Akademia Nauk, abbreviated PAN), including the Electrical Engineering Committee, it is advisable to recall the atmosphere at the beginning of the early 50's of the last century surrounding the field of science and higher education in Poland. In May of 1950, Adam Rapacki became the Minister of Higher Education. He fully supported of deputy minister Henryk Golański-head of the department for Higher Eduation since June 1958. At that time, there was a massive increase in investment in all existing institutions of higher education and the emergence of many new schools. For example, during that time in Łódź, six new universities were created. Numerous scientific institutions were also organized, especially departmental. There was a steady increase in spending on education.