From an early age, children meet, observe and get to know animals. They acquire knowledge about animals before entering school, mainly through their own research and experience of nature and personal experience. Unfortunately, due to various trends in modern society and technological development, children have less and less direct contact with the natural world and increasingly learn about nature and organisms in it indirectly, through books, cartoons, movies, and other media. In addition to parents, teachers can have a significant impact on how children experience nature and how they relate to it. They must offer students opportunities for experiential and authentic learning about nature, which is also emphasized by the curricula. Direct contact and experience with all the senses are especially important when getting to know organisms. Students love animals and are motivated to learn about them. Direct contact with them allows them to gain first-hand knowledge, which is of higher quality and more lasting and also influences a positive attitude towards organisms and the natural world in general.
In the master thesis, we used drawings and descriptions to explore the perceptions of fourth and fifth-grade primary school pupils about the snail, toad and guinea pig.
In the theoretical part, we presented the experience of nature and animals in children and emphasized the importance of direct experiences. We examined learning and teaching, including the use of living organisms in teaching. We presented observation, which is a fundamental activity in science lessons, and identified misconceptions that are also part of learning and teaching. We also presented children’s drawing as an analytical tool, reviewed science curricula, and presented the animals on which our research is based.
In the empirical part, we presented and interpreted the results of the research, which was carried out with the help of a questionnaire and analysis of drawings and descriptions of selected animals. We looked at students' perceptions and knowledge of these animals, and whether their perceptions of the animals they chose were influenced by their gender, class, care of the pet, and direct contact with the animal.
We found that students' perceptions are mainly influenced by direct experiences and that students' drawings provide insight into their perceptions or knowledge of (external) physical characteristics, while descriptions also provide insight into animal characteristics such as behaviour, feeding, habitat, etc., although the analysis of the drawings showed that students' drawings can also reveal these.
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