Effectiveness of lessons (EOL) is related to several factors that affect the learning performance of students to varying degrees. Teachers must understand the factors that encourage students’ learning and achievement, to plan and implement effective lessons. Despite the abundance of research on the effectiveness of lessons, there is little that focuses on basic schools with an adapted programme with lower educational standards.
The main goal of the master's thesis was to determine the general level of EOL in basic schools with an adapted educational programme with the help of a questionnaire. The broader goal was to find out which factors have the greatest influence on EOL, with the help of regression analysis, the Friedman test, and the order of factors by teachers in order of importance. The analysis was based on the perception and attitudes of teachers towards these factors. Additionally, I compared the attitudes of the participants in the research to the problem in question, according to their level of education, years of work experience, and assessment of their own competence for working with students with special needs, which I determined using the Kruskal-Walis test. I conducted the research in June 2023. 112 teachers from various elementary schools in Slovenia with an adapted education programme with lower educational standards participated in it.
The results showed that, on average, teachers rate the EOL in basic schools with an adapted education programme as effective, but according to the results, there is still room for improvement. Teachers believe that the EOL is most influenced by the following factors: class size, individualisation, disruptive behaviour, motivation, the use of combined classes, students’ abilities, teaching methods and forms, and understanding the specifics of students. Teachers attribute the greatest influence on EOL to student factors, and the least influence on teacher factors. Depending on the level of education of the participants in the research, differences appear in the variables of teaching materials and teaching and didactic aids, to which special and rehabilitation pedagogues attribute a greater influence on the effectiveness of lessons compared to those with a different education. Differences also appear in the variable understanding of the specifics of students, to which those with a different education attribute a greater influence on the EOL compared to special and rehabilitation pedagogues. Based on the number of years of work experience, differences appear in the variable lesson preparation, to which those with the most years of work experience attribute a greater influence on the EOL compared to the others. Regarding the assessment of their own competence for working with students with special needs, differences appear in the variable motivation, which is more important in terms of its influence on the effectiveness of lessons for those who rank their competence for working with students with special needs the highest.
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