AD ALTA
JOURNAL OF INTERDISCIPLINARY RESEARCH
Animal families, Months of the year, Holidays in the year, Me as
a personality. On the contrary, they would suggest excluding
following topics: Pendulum, Time and its measurement,
Transparency. Regarding the second grade, they would
recommend adding the topics Nature Conservation, Health
Care, Living and Inanimate Nature, Pets. And they would
suggest excluding the topics Plan - how not to get lost,
Dissolving substances, Exploring the universe, How fog is
formed. It follows that teachers would suggest adding several
topics that are more related to living nature, which includes both
humans and animals. On the contrary, physical or chemical
experiments were suggested to be excluded. The question is
whether these topics are difficult to grasp, or is it really, as we
stated in the theoretical background, that teachers perceive these
topics negatively because the experiments are supposed to be
performed in the classrooms.
However, the answers of the respondents also showed that some
of the topics are considered to be inappropriate for pupils due
their age. The answers were also supported by using
a qualitative method – an interview. Here, the participants
decided not only on adding some topics, but also on moving the
topics to another
grades
. The most frequent topic in the
Qualitative data was topic Time, which they would recommend
for second grade. They explain their statement by saying that
lots of pupils struggle to learn to tell the time by using analogue
clocks. The pupils of the first grade already understand the
concept of time, therefore it is often used in teaching methods
when measuring time by using hourglass, clapping, pendulum or
counting. They even enjoy making hand clock or playing with it,
but they have trouble determining the real time. This appears not
to be a problem with digital clock. Interviews with the
participants also confirmed that they would recommend the
subject matter of Substances and their states, Dissolution and
Melting for higher grades.
There was a consensus between the answers from questionnaires
and interviews. It was suggested to add topics focusing on
environmental education of pupils. Although it was not the most
frequent suggestion. We consider this to be a matter that needs
our attention. Some of the respondents said that it is necessary to
devote more time to teaching about their own regions, districts
or villages. They think that pupils should get to know the nature,
parks, history and traditions of their surroundings. Apart from
the above topics, they had no more comments on the changes of
the subject contents. They rather focused on the scope, concept,
time allocation and logical arrangement of topics, because
according to them, there in no system. This was also confirmed
by the participants in
the qualitative part of the survey
. They
agreed that the curriculum is for 3 lessons per week, rather than
1 or 2.
Concerning the previous entry, we were also interested in what
they consider to be positive or negative regarding its contents.
The interview results showed that the respondents have an
extensive experience in teaching this subject. That helped us to
identify positives and negatives. As shown by the research data,
they attribute more positives to this subject. They stated that it
helps to develop pupils' personality, their knowledge, skills and
it also shapes their perception as well as behaviour. It also helps
them to fully use their knowledge and skill set. It encourages
them to perceive themselves as part of nature and the society. At
the same time, it forces them to accept and adhere to certain
standards of behaviour. They perceive and distinguish
ecological as well as biological contexts and by using already
acquired knowledge they acquire and consolidate responsible
behavior not only towards themselves, but also towards their
surroundings, people, animals and nature.
They consider the fact that the topic covers several areas of
everyday life, its activities, nature and the environment in which
they live, to be significantly positive. Respondents also
appreciate that almost all the topics of Elementary realia subject
are related to everyday life, to nature, i.e. to the pupil's
immediate surroundings. They perceive this as one of the
reasons why it is easier for pupils to learn the curriculum. They
also appreciate that it stimulates their scientific thinking and
scientific approach to life, nature, surroundings, landscape and
homeland. There was a great number of answers suggesting to
focus more on topics such as Environment, Plant care, Excessive
use of chemical substances, and How not to pollute the
environment, not only for humans but also for animals.
Respondents stated that pupils are very interested in learning
about these topics. They want to talk about it and suggest various
examples of how to fight against environmental pollution. There
is a need to carry out qualitative research that would focus on the
opinions of children, pupils and students and examine what
subjective characteristics they attribute to environmental
protection.
Another positive aspect of the contents of Elementary realia
subject is according to the teachers the possibility to use and
vary the use of teaching aids. There are also several teaching
aids on the market, which allow them to implement activating
methods in teaching - observation, morphological exercises,
research, exploration, making assumptions, etc. This confirms
the need to implement activating methods into teaching. The
participants emphasize that experiential learning is the best
method for students how to achieve positive learning outcomes
and they add: There is an incredible number of opportunities
how to introduce and explain the topic to students – teaching
aids, electronic kits, videos, internet, etc. They see the positive in
the fact that not only can they make experiments, but
subsequently they can lead the discussion together. That is
beneficial for both the pupils and the teacher.
However, there are also some negative aspects. But interviews
have shown that there are significantly fewer negative aspects
than positive. Majority of the respondents did not comment on
negative aspects in the questionnaires. The most frequent
negative aspect was the subject contents, more precisely the
illogical outline of textbooks. The subject has undergone several
changes in the last twenty years, but the textbooks do not reflect
on these changes. The participants, who commented on the
negative aspects, agreed that the contents of this subject and
textbooks was more appropriate before the reform, i.e. before
2008. They stated that the curriculum was more age-appropriate
and there was enough time for walks and experiments. They
claim this despite the fact that they are aware of the matter that
they did not have so many teaching aids. They stated that today
are the standards unreasonable and pupils' scientific literacy is
at the low level. They pointed out that less is more. These
opinions were gained by comparing the results of the
questionnaire method and individual interviews.
As mentioned in the theoretical background, the textbooks have
also undergone several changes and of the current five
textbooks, only one has an approval clause. One of the positives
of the textbooks is the fact that the worksheets offer ideas for
experiments and varied tasks that are based on real life themes
and are supported by extensive visual material. Concerning the
variety of tasks, they are different for each subject. But by
conducting the content analysis we found out that a relatively
high percentage of them (41-57%) are comprehension tasks and
19-33% of them memorization tasks. Only up to 10% of other
thought operations such as analysis, application, evaluation or
creativity are represented in each textbooks. They consider the
fact that they do not have appropriate conditions or enough time
for the mentioned experiments as negative. They emphasized
that there is no system and many of the topics are not age-
appropriate, they are more suitable for older students. They also
perceive negatively that several subjects are rather superficially
grasped and therefore the pupils are not interested in them. On
one hand, teachers appreciate that the topics are from real life,
but here their opinions differ. They think that the curriculum
does not go into depth and provides rather superficial
information. That can also be a consequence of the fact that the
topics that are included in the curriculum are difficult to grasp.
Pupils do not have the opportunity to use their own experience
and concrete ideas, which is necessary when talking about more
difficult thought operations. The inability to use a particular idea
can also make some of the topics uninteresting for them.
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