This master thesis was based on two main questions: how to familiarize as many primary school teachers as possible with experimental work assessment guidelines and what the easiest experimental work assessment technique is.
The theory on teaching physics defines experimental work as practical exercises where students, either individually or in groups, try to solve a physics problem while using physical tools and following scientific research principles. The teacher prepares the students by including different types of experimental work in their curriculum. It usually starts with observational experiments, which aim to motivate students for additional work. This is followed by test experiments, which examine how thoroughly the students have acquired the knowledge. Lastly, students are expected to know how to use the acquired knowledge in new situations within applicative experiments. Experimental work helps students develop practical skills and procedural knowledge.
The Physics Curriculum (2011) also attests to the importance of experimental work, which sets operational learning goals for students to reach by performing experimental work. In accordance with this, different types of teaching are suggested, generally divided into the classical and the alternative types. The latter have been proven to serve as a more adequate teaching type for introducing the assessment of experimental work. The assessment of experimental work can be either direct or indirect, as long as it follows the requirements for good assessment. Such assessment has its advantages in developing a student’s skills and knowledge, and disadvantages due to time and space constraints, as well as because it requires the school to be equipped with suitable physical and learning tools.
To assess experimental work, many Slovene and foreign authors have developed models of several degrees, which include assessing students on the basis of their planning and experimental abilities, and their ability to note and report, as well as evaluate results. Taking from these models, different authors and teachers developed descriptions and criteria to assess experimental work.
Five teachers and 45 students from five Slovenian primary schools were involved in the research on assessing experimental work. For this purpose, assessment materials for experimental work were designed. Teachers and students gave their opinions on these materials, research execution and evaluation of experimental work in individually prepared questionnaires. The teachers also evaluated worksheets for the students and gave a short, semi-structured interview. Research results indicate that the materials prepared were of high quality. This part of the thesis also suggests some changes and highlights some issues or shortcomings. The research results present advantages and disadvantages of assessing experimental work, according to teachers who have carried out the evaluation. Although four out of five teachers claim that they perform experimental work assessment in their classes, the students contrapose that it is a more rarely used method of assessment in their physics classes. The comparison of the students’ grades on the worksheets and their self-evaluation grade shows that students mostly value the knowledge they showed more highly.
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