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material things, but that it is based on the formation of a
relationship with each other, that it is about thinking, decision-
making, behavior, actions and consequences of action in nature
and for nature or not. Here we have another research task - to
examine teacher's opinion on the causes and consequences of
sustainability, because the teacher's thinking is largely reflected
in the students' thinking.
From the point of view of the subject contents, we were
interested in which topics they most often deal with
environmental protection. It was an open-ended question and
respondents could write any topic from the contents of
Elementary realia subject. The most repeated topics were Water,
Animals, Living and Inanimate Nature, Plants. The topics of
Man and Transport were rather rare. When we look at the
answers, we see that almost all of the topics are related to the
natural environment. Here we could also consider whether, in
connection with the undergraduate training of teachers, we
should not focus more on the teacher's thinking about
environmental protection, which is based on human thinking and
behavior. It is not enough to only talk to pupils and to warn them
of the consequences. Even though the respondents mentioned
other topics, none of them mentioned Man and his health, which
is also dependent on nature and natural conditions.
3.3 Research conclusions
A comparison of the analysis of qualitative and quantitative data
showed that teachers would suggest to include in the contents of
the subject topics that are related to nature as well as to man.
Specifically, we are talking about the following topics: Animals
in the forest and their families, Me as a personality and family,
but also the topic Time. However, not determining and
measuring time, but Seasons and Months of the year. They think
that structuring the topics in terms of subject content should be
more logical. The answers of the respondents showed that that
students are very interested in topics related to nature and the
environment. However, they said that some subjects are being
taught rather superficially.
Concerning our project Forest pedagogy, which has the character
of applied pedagogical research, we can see that the teacher can
also approach education about the forest environment by
implementing the mentioned proposed topics We justify this by
saying that teaching about the forest would include not only
knowledge about the animals in the forest, but also about the
man's need for the forest and vice versa - planting trees, their
treatment, measurement, oxygen production, animal feeding, etc.
Also the topic Seasons can be taught by observing the same
place in the forest. These findings inspire us to create didactic
materials for teachers. Teachers are aware of the fact that for
teaching individual topics, it is important to arouse students'
interest in these topics in order to understand why we learn this
subject, where we will deal with it in life. The results showed
that the interest of students in topics related to the forest
environment is relatively high. A lot of the respondents
suggested to focus more on topics such as Environment, Plant
care, Excessive use of chemicals and how not to pollute the
environment, not only for humans but also for animals. They
explained it by saying that students are very interested in these
topics, they want to talk about it and to come up with various
examples of how to fight against environmental pollution. There
is a room for qualitative research that would map the views of
children, pupils and students on what subjective characteristics
they attribute to the environmental protection and what are their
suggestions.
It turns out that thanks to the variability of teaching aids,
students are interested in this subject, they are motivated to work
and actively participate in the teaching process, because they
enjoy working with these aids. They want to try everything, they
want to explore and discover. The results also showed that
teachers appreciate worksheets for the 1st and 2nd grade, which
offer several topics for experiments and observations. However,
there are also some negatives. With one or two hours a week
there is not enough time for their implementation and in-depth
discussions. They suggest 3 hours a week. On one hand, they
appreciate the clarity and diversity of the tasks, but on the other
hand, research has shown that these tasks are not in accordance
with Bloom's taxonomy of cognitive objectives. They focus
more on the development of memory and understanding of
concepts, rather than on higher cognitive processes. Although
the textbooks meet the quantitative or formal criteria, it is not
enough. The question is, whether teachers know the
methodology for evaluating textbooks. They should look at
textbooks more critically and take into consideration their
qualitative content character. This finding can also be an
inspiration for creating education programs for teachers,
similarly as with forest pedagogy programs. The research
revealed that forest pedagogy is rather unknown in school
practice. Teachers do not know its core and the possibilities of
using it in teaching or education. On the positive side, however,
they do not consider it to be a marginal issue in the education of
Elementary realia subject, as they agree that it is an important
part of environmental education, and therefore of environmental
protection as well. In the research, which is a partial output of
our project, we managed to answer the research questions. At the
same time, the research findings showed us possibilities for
further research, which were presented in the data interpretation.
4 Conclusion
Nowadays, the matters of pupils' receptivity, attention, curiosity
and courage of their thinking and creativity are becoming more
and more popular. In the first years of primary school, the pupil
desires to discover and get to know the surrounding reality and
to understand it. This helps to form the basis for his or her
research. However, the teacher must enter into the process of this
discovery, acquaintance, finding and research not only with his
individual teaching strategy, but also in accordance with the
contents of the didactic system. This is one of the reasons why
more rigorous attention should be paid to the revision of the
Elementary realia subject contents, as well as a more precise
approach to textbooks, their creation, and evaluation. A teacher
should be able to ask questions that will help to develop their
cognitive processes.
The child comes to school with a certain amount of knowledge
gained from observing the forest environment and supported by
an interview. However, observing and discovering initiates
questions, that neither the parent nor the teacher can answer with
certainty. This was also confirmed by our research. Forest
pedagogy, learning about the forest, natural sciences topics
related to the forest environment, or extracurricular activities
related to the forest environment led by a qualified forest
teacher, should not be perceived as a competition for the teacher
or educator at school. Pupil, teacher, educator or even parent,
they should all benefit from it, in terms of the knowledge as well
as its experiential nature. It is a teaching that helps us to actively
involve all the senses and all the cognitive processes in
conjunction with psychomotor skills.
This teaching is led by the experts - forest pedagogues, who
know the forest environment and life in it perfectly. He or she
can explain various contexts, e.g. why forest and nature are
important for our lives and health, but also why and how we can
take care of the forest.
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