In today's world teachers spend a lot of their time making lessons interesting and fun for students. They also try to include children’s movements and to keep them mentally active. Their mission is to introduce the material as easy as possible for the children to understand and remember it permanently. Additionally, they are trying to learn the children to be smart, confident, responsible and compassionate individuals. Teachers include in their lessons various teaching approaches, for example role playing, learning through creative movement, teamwork, problem – based learning, experiential learning.
This master’s thesis is focused on teaching scientific content related to light (shadows, the sense of sight, Moon and its phases, the propagation and reflection of light) in the 3. grade of primary school by incorporating elements of creative movement. We are interested in the effects of such teaching on students, their progress, their knowledge and their satisfaction with this kind of teaching. The curriculum of Environmental Studies (2011) states that the general goal of the subject originates from competencies as a combination of knowledge, skills and relationships that suit the circumstances and tribute to successful living in a society of knowledge. The most important general goal is understanding the environment and developing the cognitive domain, which are achieved through learning about the environment.
This master’s thesis focuses on the use of creative movement as an effective tool to enhance the learning process in Environmental Studies. The research examines the impact of including elements of creative movement on:
• Students’ knowledge progress: Do students learn better about the Moon and its phases, light, shadows and the eye through creative movement?
• Students’ well-being: How do the students feel before and after Environmental Studies that incorporate creative movement?
• Students’ opinions: What do the students think about lessons that include elements of creative movement?
• The class teacher’s opinion: What does the class teacher think about lessons that include elements of creative movement and about creative movement in general?
We conducted a study for which we prepared six lesson plans that included elements of creative movement. We always taught the same third grade, whose students also received knowledge tests and questionaries. The tests assessed the students’ knowledge and their progress over time. With the questionaries we collected students’ opinions about Environmental Studies subject and the teaching approach with the elements of creative movement. To better support the results, we conducted a semi-structured interview with the class teacher of the same third grade.
The results of the empiric stage have shown that the well-being of students increases throughout the lecture, even if they were sad at the beginning. We also discovered that the students gained the appropriate knowledge throughout the lessons; we calculated the g-factor of each students’ knowledge progress and evaluated the results according to Hake’s reference. This knowledge was permanent, as shown by the results of the knowledge tests they took after three weeks. Students’ opinions about the Environmental Studies subject changed throughout the lessons, because at the beginning of the research students didn’t show any enthusiasm towards the subject, but they did at the end. Students have shown great affection towards the movement, both at the beginning and at the end. Positive feelings were also shown towards the teaching approach with elements of creative movement. The results also support the involvement of elements of creative movement in the Environmental Studies curriculum.
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