When teaching science, it is important for the teacher to carefully choose forms of work and include them in the lesson by taking into account many factors, such as lesson content, learning goals, time management, space and other factors. Furthermore, a teacher must always keep in mind his students and their development in many areas, such as physical, intellectual and psychosocial. A teacher at primary level in Slovenia usually teaches pupils aged 6 to 11 years. Since there is a significant difference between teaching 6 and 11-year-olds, these differences can be particularly important when implementing cooperative learning forms, such as group work.
In the master’s thesis we wanted to find out how group work is implemented in science subjects in the 1st and 5th grade of primary school. We focused on the activities of both, teachers and students, characteristics of lessons, teachers’ self-evaluation and their observations regarding the specifics of group work in the 1st or 5th grade. Therefore, we pay attention to all three factors of the lesson: a teacher, students and learning content. To find out the specifics of group work in the 1st and 5th grade of primary school we did a qualitative research, which enabled us to collect data directly and get more in-depth insight into the implementation of group work in the selected lessons.
Data was collected with structured observations and interviews with teachers. In the research, we observed group work during science lessons in 10 different classes in three Slovenian primary schools. Five observations were made in the 1st grade during the lessons of nature study and five in the 5th grade during lessons of science and technology. A total of 13 teachers were included in the research. After every observed lesson, we also conducted structured interview with the teacher to gain a more in-depth insight into the happenings during the lesson.
With the conducted research we found out that the biggest differences between the group work in 1st and 5th grade were seen in the teachers’ activities in the introductory part and the students’ activities in the main part of the lesson. We have also found out the characteristics of selected lessons and concluded that there were differences between the 1st and 5th grade regarding the classroom arrangement, learning materials and forms of group work. All the selected teachers evaluated the conducted lessons positively, whereas most of them also pointed out at least one thing they would change. All teachers believed that the students accepted the group work positively. When defining specifics of group work regarding the grade, the selected teachers most often compared their lesson preparation, work instructions, the pupils’ familiarity with group work, their independence and motivation for work.
The results of the research can be helpful to all teachers at primary level, as they enable reflection on the development of children and their cooperation skills, as well as reflection on planning and teaching science lessons through group work. Lessons carried out in 1st grades are a proof that with thoughtful planning and suitable implementation, group work can be carried out effectively already in the first grade of primary school.
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