The perception of learning and teaching at school has changed throughout history and adapted to those who are the core of those activities, i.e. students. The roles of the student and the teacher have changed as well. At first the conveyor of knowledge, the teacher has turned into a mentor, guide and organiser of the learning environment so as to enable active participation and involvement in the process of building knowledge. In this respect, many authors are pointing to the significance of experiential learning, i.e. experience in building knowledge. The first part of the empirical research explores how experience from students’ everyday life and their living environment (a hunter in the family, sheep farming, home environment) impacts vocational college students’ knowledge of wolf biology. We organised a workshop based on the principles of experiential learning and assessed its influence on the students’ knowledge of wolf biology. Their knowledge was analysed on the basis of a test before and after the workshop.
Our findings indicate that a hunter in the family, sheep farming at home and the home environment do not impact the knowledge of wolf biology. However, the students performed better at the test after the workshop than before the workshop. The research findings should encourage biology and natural science teachers to include concrete materials in their lessons (materials from permanent collections or handling live animals) to provide their students with experience that will improve their understanding and provide in-depth knowledge of the topic. It should be noted that knowledge is an important factor in developing viewpoints on a certain issue, e.g. preserving natural wolf populations.
|
