One of the main goals of the school is to prepare pupils for life and work, that is, to provide them with information and train them to be able to transfer and use this information in their professional and everyday life. However, we notice that pupils often limit learning content and acquired knowledge to specific school subjects. This means that they do not transfer and use knowledge learned from one subject to other subjects or in extracurricular situations.
In the master's thesis, we explored the transfer of knowledge from the classroom to nature, that is, from school to extracurricular situations. We studied whether children notice and recognize geometry in nature and whether they can use in mathematical classes acquired knowledge of geometry and measurement to solve concrete problems from everyday life. The research is based on a quantitative and qualitative research approach. In doing so, we used a descriptive non-experimental method. In the study participated 20 pupils from the selected fifth grade of elementary school from Slovenia. We obtained data by carrying out two tests and a survey.
The results of the research have shown that the majority of pupils who participated in the study, notice and recognize examples of geometry, even outside the school and is aware that mathematics accompanies us everywhere we go.
Pupils also recognize the usefulness of mathematics at school and outside school and recognize that they also use it themselves. Contrary to the good basic and conceptual knowledge, the research showed weak problem-solving knowledge. We have seen that pupils can only partially transfer and use knowledge of geometry and measurement that they have acquired in mathematics classes to solve concrete problems in nature. Among other things, the research has also shown that pupils prefer to solve mathematical problems in groups and that they like to have lessons in nature.
With the master's thesis, we tried to draw attention to the importance of transfer of knowledge, the presence of mathematics in professional and everyday life and the importance of training pupils to use the acquired knowledge in their everyday life.
|