Current curricular policy underlines student competence as the goal value at the expense of the knowledge of the subject mat-ter considered to be the instrument for reach-ing that competence. The páper presents an apology for the key function of knowledge of subject matter in the educational process. It defines this knowledge as a sociál construc-tion in the network of symbolic and power relations inside expert communities. On this basis, it criticises the lack of attention paid to the knowledge, which means that epistemological and cognitive psychological approaches to teaching/learning based on the point of view of knowledge are missing. The article then examines a tension between the de-contextualization and the re-con-textualization of the knowledge of subject matter based on Bernstein‘s two types of codes (seriál and integrative). These are not mutually ex-clusive, but in each čase they allow a different kid of structuring of the „in-ner order“ of the student (separate categories in a hierarchical structure vs. segmented, sequenced knowledge involved in concrete life situations) and the „sociál order“ as well (sociál hierarchy of activities, positions and roles vs. implicit rules based network of re-lationships). There is a tendency to replace the seriál model of the curriculum with the integrative/thematic one in order to „help“ the students to attain academie success and to develop competence.
The author argues for a conception of school education in which the nodal knowl-edge and the semantic structures become pivotal in order to ensure that the cognitive activity of the student is enhanced.