The lessons for environment education must be designed in a way that pupils are active as far as possible and develop cognitive areas. Teachers, therefore, use different methods of work in the classroom. When planning activities for the 1st triad, the teachers also use the method of didactic game in the environment education. Studies have shown positive impact of didactic games, as a pupil is fully involved, attracted, the method is trying to integrate all his senses, provokes interest and increases his concentration.
When reviewing the literature I found many ideas and positive aspects of the introduction of didactic games in teaching, however, I have not noticed the evaluation of the use of games in teaching of Natural sciences subjects in primary school. I set the mentioned fact for the objective of master's thesis. With the master's thesis I wish to find out whether the teaching approach with a predominant method of didactic game in the lessons of environment education in the 2nd grade of primary schools is more effective than traditional approach, and how much experience using didactic games in the said subject do teachers have. I limited to topics mixtures and weather, which are taught in the 2nd grade of primary school.
The thesis answers to the following research questions: 1) do pupils in the traditional approach and in the approach of using didactic games assimilate the objectives of a lesson; 2) to what extent do they assimilate the concepts in connection with mixtures through didactic games and traditional teaching; 3) to what extent do pupils assimilate the concepts in connection with weather through didactic games and traditional teaching; 4) how and to what extent are didactic games used by the teachers in the lessons of environment education.
The study involved 40 pupils from 2nd grade of the selected provincial school, 20 pupils in the experimental group and 20 pupils in the control group. I acquired the data on existing knowledge and data on the knowledge after the pedagogical experiment through structured interviews with pupils. The interview consisted of 10 questions, 5 were related to the topic "weather" and 5 to the topic "mixtures". I also prepared questions for semi-structured interview with class teachers who teach in those classes. Interviews with two teachers were conducted prior to the implementation of lessons.
The research results show positive impact of didactic game method in the assimilation of knowledge. Pupils acquired the set learning goals and were motivated and active during the lesson. We found that the pupils' knowledge in topics of mixture and weather in control and experimental group was poor. Analysis of responses by activities shows that pupils in the experimental group answered correctly to those questions in a larger number. Teachers, included in the research, do not apply didactic games in environment education.
Results of the performed research cannot be generalized due to the small size of the sample, selected topics, and the short term of pedagogical experiment, however, they still offer a starting point for further research.
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