Overburdening of pupils with schoolwork is one of the important indicators of the school’s attitude towards pupils and their position in the educational process. International researches in the field of children’s health show that compared to previous periods, overburdening of Slovenian pupils increases with age. The researches PISA and TIMSS 2015 note that out of all science fields they include, science skills are the lowest precisely in the field of biology. The researches also analyse the interest of pupils for science education. The results show that Slovenian primary school pupils have a fairly negative attitude towards science education. Poor science skills in the field of biology and negative attitude of pupils towards science education (also in the field of biology) can be the consequences of overburdening of pupils with schoolwork in biology classes and too demanding individual learning goals of this subject. An overly excessive syllabus and too demanding learning goals can cause overburdening of pupils with schoolwork and the classes can lose their quality. The most common suggestion to decrease the burden of pupils with schoolwork is precisely to decrease the demands of the syllabus.
In the Master’s thesis, we analysed the opinion of Slovenian primary school teachers of biology about the importance and complexity of learning goals set in the syllabus for biology in the ninth grade of primary school. Based on the assessment of the importance and complexity of individual learning goals, provided by primary school teachers of biology, we analysed if they assess certain learning content of the syllabus for biology in the ninth grade of primary school as quantitatively too excessive (if they assessed a part of the learning goals as less important) or too demanding for this developmental stage of pupils.
The results of the research have shown that preschool teachers of biology think that a large part of learning goals of biology in the ninth grade is suitable in its demands for ninth graders; however, they also recognise some learning goals as more demanding to understand by pupils at this stage of development. This applies to learning goals of the content sets research and experiments and to some learning goals of the content sets inheritance, biotechnology and evolution. The results of the research have also shown that preschool teachers of biology think a higher share of learning goals of biology in the ninth grade is important for pupils at this level of education. Preschool teachers of biology recognize learning goals of the following content sets as more important: biology and society, research and experiments, biotechnology; as well as some learning goals of the content sets chemistry of living systems, inheritance and evolution. The results of the research have also shown that the length of service of biology teachers and the educational program they have concluded are connected with their opinion about the importance and complexity of learning goals of biology in the ninth grade. Based on the results of the research, we can conclude that preschool teachers of biology think that the syllabus for biology in the ninth grade of primary school is a bit too extensive, since it also includes some learning goals they find less important. Biology teachers of the ninth grade also think that the syllabus for biology in the ninth grade includes some learning goals, which are very demanding for pupils at this stage of development.
The results of the research can be of help for all those, who work in education in the field of biology, to form such a syllabus for biology in primary school that would include learning goals, which are suitably demanding for pupils at this stage of development, and would be less extensive in terms of content.
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