Teacher’s autonomy enables him to choose teaching methods, forms and didactic tools for planning the educational process. For additional motivation and better understanding of the student’s knowledge, the teacher should also use various concrete illustrations and didactic tools that give mathematical content a certain meaning (Elementary School Mathematics Program. Curriculum, 2011). One of the supporters of the use of various materials in the past was Maria Montessori. According to her successful learning cannot be achieved simply by listening to words, but a child’s experience is needed. That is why it is so important that the teacher knows how to prepare an appropriate environment for students, which encourages them to educate or to carry out activities (Montessori, 2011). In the master’s thesis, we focused on the use of didactic tools, more specifically on the use of montessori material in mathematics lessons from 1st to 5th grade of public primary school. We presented the basic features of montessori pedagogy, the way of teaching in Montessori schools and the inclusion of various montessori materials in the learning process. In the empirical par, we used a questionnaire to investigate the knowledge of montessori materials among primary teachers who teach mathematics and compared the use of montessori materials and other teaching aids in mathematics teaching in public primary school with their use in Montessori schools. We focused on teachers’ opinions on montessori pedagogy and the possibilities of using montessori materials in mathematics lessons in public primary schools, and identifies factors that affect the frequency of use of teaching aids. We were also interested in the connection between the use of montessori elements and the working life of primary teachers.
We came to the conclusion that teachers in public primary schools are in favour of montessori pedagogy and they use some montessori elements in their class. Teachers also use so-called montessori material which helps pupils understand new contents. We found out that the use of teaching aids in primary school and montessori materials in montessori school differ from each other. The biggest difference is that montessori material are the main foundation of teaching and learning in montessori school in contradiction with teaching aids in public primary school that are only helping to achieve the aims. Because of this montessori material in public primary schools and teaching aids have different meaning in mathematical classes. We noticed the difference between teachers with shorter and longer length of service in the working life of primary teacher about knowingness of montessori pedagogy and the use of montessori elements. Teachers with shorter length of service are better introduced to montessori pedagogy as well as in use of montessori elements at class compared to the teachers with longer length of service.
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