Picture books are very important in the upbringing and education of children. With their help, they can move into a world of illusions and imagination, and learn at the same time. Educational picture books can be used in almost all subjects, not only in Slovene lessons. With picture books, both the text and the illustrations are important, and above all their connection and complementarity. For 1st graders, the most important part of picture books are illustrations, the text only complements them. Many didactic aids can be used in math lessons, and one of them is a mathematical picture book. Its use in math lessons opens up many opportunities for interdisciplinary connections, diversification of lessons and motivating students to work. In addition, students also develop a positive attitude towards the subject.
In this master's thesis, we covered the principles of math lessons, representation, motivation and interdisciplinary connections in math lessons. We focused on the set of geometry and measurement, which we opted for due to abstract and consequently more difficult to understand learning content and concepts. We know several types of didactic aids that we use in math lessons, and a mathematical picture book is one of them. In the theoretical part, we described picture books in general, their definition, division, physical properties, illustration, and the interaction between text and illustration, which is one of their characteristics. We also paid special attention to mathematical picture books, presented some picture books about geometric shapes and summarized the MASLIK project and other research. We also examined geometric shapes from the perspective of arts.
The empirical part consists of three parts. First, we performed 4 lessons of math on the topic of geometric shapes in one of the 1st grades. This was followed by two lessons of art classes, in which students illustrated the story of the Ludvik the Monster in Likarija. By combining the text and illustrations of the students, a mathematical picture book was created, which was used by some of the teachers as a didactic aid in math lessons. We observed the lessons and recorded our observations. We observed in which part of the lesson they used a mathematical picture book, in what way they included it in the lessons, what activities they performed and how the students reacted to the picture book. At the end of the lesson, we also learned from the teachers how they approached planning and what their attitude is toward mathematical picture books as a didactic aid.
Teachers mostly used a mathematical picture book in math lessons or in connecting mathematics with arts or the Slovene language. The picture book had a positive, motivating effect on the students. Interestingly, none of the teachers who participated in the research had yet used a picture book to teach mathematical concepts, but they would use it again in the future. Research in the field of mathematical picture books is important for developing new approaches in teaching math, as well as for encouraging unmotivated students in a friendly, playful way.
The results of the research provide ideas on different ways of using mathematical picture books in class, and also encourage teachers to use mathematical picture books as a didactic tool in developing mathematical concepts, to diversify lessons and strengthen students' positive attitude towards math.
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