In the curriculum for the environmental studies it is written among the general objectives that pupils during the environmental studies lessons develop a cognitive field that includes developing processes, abilities, and procedures, and also, in connection with it integrated (synonym complex) thinking. Integrated thinking enables us to comprehend things, phenomena, and actions as interconnected elements of the whole. This thinking is not based on linear sequences, but on a network of connections, interlacing and interdependence of parts which form the whole. Similarly, the systemic thinking could be described which also enables connecting the elements into the whole, helps to understand cause-and-effect connections in our life. The development of integrated systemic thinking in pupils enables could be developed by various learning approaches which stress the integrated development of a child.
In the master’s thesis, we evaluated a model of cross-curricular integration of the environmental studies and arts from the perspective of the development of thinking in pupils. Cross-curricular integration was based on the topic of a “factory”. We valued the appropriateness of the methods of the creative movement and puppets as well as seeing the performance and educational work at the City Museum of Ljubljana in the development of integrated systemic thinking in pupils. In the research, we included the pupils of the first grade of purposely selected elementary school, who became acquainted with the selected topic on factories in Ljubljana by seeing the exhibition and educational work in the museum by using the method of creative movement and a puppet during the lessons. We gained and analyzed the drawings and the results of adaptations of the pictures on the topic of a “factory” of the pupils, included in the exhibition (before the beginning of the discussion of the topic, after seeing the exhibition in the City Museum of Ljubljana, and after the concluded discussion of the topic). We also performed an interview with the pupils. We checked and analyzed the learning preparations of the performed lessons and the planned activity in the City Museum of Ljubljana. The research was qualitative and quantitative. Descriptive and causal-non-experimental methods were used. The results of the research showed that the used methods were efficient and appropriate for the pupils of the first grade of the elementary school and that the methods enable the development of higher forms of thinking. On the basis of the selected data, we namely ascertained that the pupils made progress in the development of the systemic and integrated thinking as well. The overview is of assistance to teachers in planning the performance of lessons in the first grade of the elementary school, especially the teachers who include the method of creative movement and the use of dolls in lessons on several occasions.
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