Informal intergenerational learning plays an important role in enabling extended families to spend quality time together and in enhancing the understanding of chemical concepts in connection with everyday situations. A review of the literature in the field of chemical education in Slovenia revealed no existing research including intergenerational cooperation linked to experimental work.
In the theoretical part of the Master’s thesis, international and national strategic frameworks related to educational policy are presented, with the aim of strengthening responsiveness to social needs and labour-market demands. Within the context of the sustainable development agenda, the concept of quality education is outlined, followed by a presentation of formal, informal, and intergenerational education, both individually and in combination. This section is followed by a discussion of learning and teaching natural science content, with an emphasis on scientific literacy and the importance of experimental work in chemical education. The chapter concludes with an overview of selected natural science education centres at both the international and national levels.
The empirical part examines an intergenerational experimental workshop from the perspectives of its implementation and the assimilation of chemical concepts. A total of 29 students from the 8th and 9th grades of Miran Jarc Primary School (hereafter PrS) and 28 adults participated in the workshop, including 12 members of the teaching staff and 16 family members of the students. All participants completed a questionnaire before and after the workshop on essential oils and fragrant home products. The questionnaire aimed to determine participants’ prior experiences with experimental workshops involving collaborative intergenerational learning, their experiences with obtaining and using essential oils and fragrant home products, their reasons for participating, their expectations, and their views on the added value and usefulness of experimental workshops that incorporate intergenerational learning. In addition to questionnaires, observation sheets were used to explore intergenerational collaboration among selected participants.
The results show that very few participants had prior experience with hands-on workshops involving collaborative intergenerational learning, and limited experience with obtaining or using the workshop content. Participants in the pilot study (PS) primarily engaged in the experimental activities due to the content of the Intergenerational Experimental Workshop (hereafter IEW), whereas participants in the empirical study (ES) were equally motivated by the content and the format of the workshop. Using a rating scale from 1 to 5, I found that participants generally assessed their prior knowledge of the workshop content as minimal, but after completing the workshop, evaluated it as good or very good. The PS participants gained new knowledge about essential oils and fragrant home products, created various simple yet personalised scented items, and experienced the workshop as engaging, fragrant, and enjoyable. Similarly, the ES participants acquired new knowledge and experiences, observed the child's interest and approach to the tasks, and described the workshop as interesting, fragrant, enjoyable, useful, and educational. Participants identified the added value of the IEW mainly in terms of its format, emphasising reciprocal learning and the acquisition of new insights and knowledge. Some PS participants additionally highlighted the establishment of a more equal relationship among participants, the opportunity to observe others in contexts outside regular lessons, and insight into the child’s engagement and approach to experimental work. Participants reported that they intended to apply the knowledge and experience gained through the IEW when creating and experimenting with family members at home, using it as motivation to produce similar items, gifts, or fragrances, or to engage in further experimentation. Through observation and documentation of the experimental component of the IEW, which included family members, I examined group dynamics of interpersonal collaboration across the eight ES groups, as well as role distribution within selected groups. The findings indicate that all eight groups exhibited internal interactions, although the frequency and selection of interacting participants (same- or different-generation) varied. In six groups, mutual collaborative interactions occurred at the start of each station in the form of discussions about task selection, role allocation, and work procedures (the fifth and sixth groups being exceptions). As the workshop progressed, four groups (first, second, fourth, and fifth) predominantly displayed same-generation interaction patterns, two groups (third and sixth) exhibited intergenerational interactions, and the remaining two groups (seventh and eighth) demonstrated both intergenerational and same-generation interactions.
Regarding cooperation, based on the observed distribution of roles in the selected groups collector, coordinator, planner, performer, and observer—I found that in two groups (the first and the fourth), students assumed the more active roles, namely performer, planner, and coordinator. In the fifth group, two family members took on all roles due to student inactivity, while in the seventh group, the active roles were shared between a student and a family member (the grandmother).
The Master’s thesis was limited in the implementation of the empirical part of the IEW due to the COVID-19 health crisis, particularly concerning the inclusion of different generations and the acquisition of a sufficiently large sample. Future research should include a larger sample of participants from various locations and additionally conduct interviews with all participants.
Keywords: Intergenerational Experimental Workshop (IEW), informal intergenerational learning, teaching and learning chemistry, importance of experimental work, essential oils and fragrant home products.
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