In this master's thesis, we explained the forms of entertainment and ways of cheering up among the ancient Romans. We also described the discovery learning teaching method. By planning and implementing lessons for 5th grade primary school students, we demonstrated the importance of using different teaching methods when learning historical content within the subject družba. By observing lessons and analysing tests, we researched which teaching method had a greater effect on memorising new content and which method had a greater impact on developing and using higher-order thinking processes.
In the empirical part, we used both qualitative and quantitative research approaches. The quantitative part is based on tests completed by 36 students from two 5th grade classes in a Slovenian primary school. We were interested in whether the use of different teaching methods leads to different levels of final knowledge and whether students exposed to these two teaching methods develop the same abilities in using higher-order thinking processes. The quantitative part was supplemented with a qualitative part, which was based on the observation of lessons conducted in two 5th grade primary school classes. Through these observations, we determined the activity of the students and the course of the learning process.
We found that the discovery learning method has significantly more positive effects than teaching and learning with traditional methods. With the discovery learning method, students are much more active and motivated. At the same time, this method encourages independent, critical, and in-depth thinking. It is sensible to include the discovery learning method in history lessons and to supplement lessons that use traditional teaching methods with discovery learning approaches.
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