A combined department consists of at least two different classes, which means that teaching is different than in a regular department, and consequently communication is also different. Teaching in a combined department is a challenge for teachers as it requires a specific form of teaching. Classes can be held directly, which means that the teacher works with students directly, or indirectly, which means that the teacher works with students indirectly. In the master's thesis, we wanted to check how these two forms of teaching affect the quantity and quality of communication in the department in mathematics lessons, as we found the topic insufficiently researched.
In the master's thesis, we first presented the course, various forms and parts of communication, and various issues that arise in the classroom. We then presented mathematics as a school subject, included types of knowledge in mathematics, and described methods and forms of work in mathematics lessons. At the end of the theoretical part, we described the principles of combined teaching and focused on its planning.
The main goal of our research was to gain a better insight into the quality and quantity of communication in mathematics lessons in the combined department, as this topic has not yet been sufficiently researched. At the same time, we wanted to check whether there are differences in the quantity and quality of communication in direct and indirect lessons.
The answers to the research questions were obtained by observing three lessons of mathematics in the combined department of the 2nd and 3rd grades. The results of the research showed that significantly more communication took place in direct lessons. The level of questions was mainly lower in direct and indirect classes, while the closed type of questions prevailed in both forms. We found that the amount of verbal communication in the combined class depends mainly on the forms and methods of work used by the teacher, as both forms and methods of work can be performed in both direct and indirect lessons. In direct lessons, the most common forms and methods of work are those that involve more verbal communication, such as frontal learning form and method of conversation. In indirect lessons, however, the individual learning form and method of written works, which exclude verbal communication, appear more often.
The obtained results provide teachers with an insight into the existing state of quantity and quality of communication in direct and indirect mathematics lessons in the combined department. It should be noted, however, that due to the Covid-19 epidemic, we observed only 3 math lessons, which is too few to generalize the results.
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