DIFFERENCES IN THE EXPERIENCE OF SCIENCE CONTENTS AND ITS IMPLEMENTATION IN CLASSROOM TEACHING

Abstract

The educational process for every individual has an important role in life. An even more important role is played by the teacher, on whom the quality of teaching depends a lot. Teachers fight their own battles along the way - how to interest the student and develop positive attitudes about teaching and teaching content, how to implement teaching as high-quality as possible, how to contribute to better student achievements, etc. One of the key things for quality acquisition of knowledge is students’ awareness of the importance and applicability of the teaching content they learn. The concept of the content of natural science, on which we will base this work, refers to the content of natural sciences that are covered within the subject My environment (in the first three grades) or Nature and society (fourth and fifth grade) in the Republic of Srpska according to the Curriculum for elementary education (2021). The aim of the paper is to examine the differences in experiencing the content of science and their realization in the teaching of nature and society among students of younger grades of elementary school. A survey questionnaire was conducted with 343 students of grades II-V. The Likert-type questionnaire consisted of 13 statements to which the students responded by circling one of the provided answers on a five-point scale - “strongly agree”, “partially agree”, “not sure”, “mostly disagree” and “disagree”. The following research tasks were set: examine the homogeneity of the variance in student answers; perform a one-factor analysis of variance according to the independent variable “class”; examine the existence of statistically significant differences in responses between groups; interpret and analyze the obtained results. The results of the research indicate that the differences appear in favor of second-grade students, who experience the teaching of nature and society more positively, and adopt the material with more enthusiasm, than students of other grades. Classes organized according to some of the active learning models leave a better impression and effect, as found. Enthusiasm for learning declines already in the third grade, but returns with a slightly lower intensity in the fourth and fifth grade. What they all have in common is that they can be used by active learning models, of which ambiental teaching of nature and society, followed by multimedia teaching, stands out. Since through the research we have gained knowledge about the experience of science content and its implementation among students of younger school age, in the next research we should deal with each grade individually, trying to find out what actually happens at the transition from the second to the third grade, and what from the third to in the fourth, or in the fifth, regarding the adoption of the contents of nature and society, with special reference to specific learning models.