Teaching of learning contents wind and water circulation with didactic board games in the fifth grade of elementary school

Naravoslovje in tehnika je šolski predmet, ki nosi pomembno vlogo pri vzgoji, izobraževanju in nasploh pri celostnem oblikovanju mlade osebe. V učnem načrtu za spoznavanje okolja zasledimo učne cilje, usmerjene k spoznavanju vremenskih pojavov in lastnosti snovi, kar se v učnem načrtu za naravoslovje in tehniko sistematično nadgrajuje. Omenjeni učni vsebini sta vsakdanji, a njuno poznavanje precej površinsko. V 5. razredu osnovne šole se znanje o vetru dopolni, in sicer s poznavanjem vzrokov nastanka vetra, načinov merjenja zračnega tlaka, hitrosti in smeri vetra, poznavanjem načinov izkoriščanja vetra itd. Pri učni vsebini kroženje vode v naravi učenci obnovijo znanje o procesih prehajanja vode v različna agregatna stanja in svoje znanje dopolnijo s poznavanjem procesov, ki potekajo pri kroženju vode v naravi, ter spoznajo razloge za stekanje vode proti morju. Kot ena sodobnejših, konstruktivnih in manj uveljavljenih učnih metod pri poučevanju se pojavlja didaktična igra. Ta je pogosteje v rabi pri mlajših učencih, tj. v prvem triletju osnovne šole, redkeje jo uporabljajo učitelji s starejšimi skupinami učencev. V magistrskem delu smo raziskali, v kolikšni meri z namiznimi didaktičnimi igrami dosežemo učne cilje pri učnih vsebinah veter in kroženje vode v 5. razredu osnovne šole. Ker se lahko pri samostojni učni obliki pojavljajo nejasnosti v konstrukciji miselne sheme, smo raziskali še, kakšno vlogo imajo pri poučevanju na ta način sklepne ugotovitve in kako vplivajo na trajnost znanja. Empirično delo je bilo usmerjeno v kvalitativno in kvantitativno raziskovanje. Znotraj treh oddelkov 5. razreda podeželske osnovne šole so bili učenci naključno razdeljeni v podskupine, ki so tekom raziskave ostale enako formirane. Za relevantnost ugotovljenih podatkov so bili s predtestom najprej pridobljeni podatki o predznanju, pozneje so učenci reševali še potest in pozni test. Dosežki učencev na slednjih so bili primerjani s predtesti in na podlagi tega so bili oblikovani zaključki raziskave. Med samo izvedbo učnih ur z namiznima didaktičnima igrama so učenci izpolnjevali delovni list z vprašanji, vezanimi na učni vsebini. Oblikovani sta bili dve različici teh, in sicer sta se razlikovali v zapisu sklepnih ugotovitev. Na podlagi rešenih testov znanja je razvidno, da so vsi učenci v znanju napredovali in s pomočjo didaktične igre usvojili zastavljene učne cilje pri učnih vsebinah veter in kroženje vode v naravi. Med skupino s sklepnimi ugotovitvami in skupino brez teh se na potestu in poznem testu pojavljajo statistično pomembne razlike pri obeh učnih vsebinah. Pridobljeni rezultati nakazujejo pozitiven pomen sklepnih ugotovitev. Prav tako je bila skupina, ki je imela na delovnih listih naloge s sklepnimi ugotovitvami, pri doseganju učnih ciljev in dosežkih na poznem testu uspešnejša od skupine brez vključenih sklepnih ugotovitev. To je ključen podatek za smernice pri poučevanju s to učno metodo. Zaradi omejenega števila udeležencev in manjšega obsega preučevanih učnih vsebin rezultatov raziskave ne moremo posplošiti. S pomočjo rezultatov smo dobili vpogled v usvojeno znanje pri pouku z namiznima didaktičnima igrama ob uporabi učnih listov s sklepnimi ugotovitvami. Izsledki raziskave nakazujejo smernice za nadaljnje raziskovanje, npr. raziskave na večjem vzorcu, na različnih učnih vsebinah, na različnih oblikah sklepnih ugotovitev, študije učenčevega doživljanja tovrstnega pouka ipd.Natural science and technology is a school subject that carries an important role with the upbringing, education and the overall formation of a young person. The curriculum for environmental education (2011) contains aims directed towards discovering weather phenomena and characteristics of matter, which are systematically upgraded in the curriculum for natural science and technology (2011). Students have a fairly superficial knowledge of these everyday subject matters. In the fifth grade, the knowledge regarding wind is supplemented with the understanding of the cause of wind, means of measuring air pressure, wind speed and wind directions, knowing the means of harnessing wind power etc. The subject matter of the water cycle revises the students\u27 understanding of water going through different states of matter and adds to that the knowledge of the processes connected to the water cycle in the nature and understanding the reasons why the water flows towards the sea. One of the more modern, constructive and less established teaching methods being used are educational games. They are more typically used with young learners, i.e. the learners of the first three years of primary school, and are less often used by teachers with groups of older learners. This thesis investigates to what extent educational board games are able to achieve the learning objectives connected to the topics of wind and water cycle in the fifth grade of primary school. Due to the possibility of confusion in the construction of cognitive scheme during individual work, the research also focused on the role of synthesis of result in this way of teaching and how it affects the permanence of knowledge. Two educational board games on the topic of wind and water cycle were designed for this purpose. The empirical part was directed towards quantitative and qualitative research. Within three fifth-grade classes of a countryside primary school, learners were randomly grouped into sub-groups that stayed the same during the research. To ensure the relevance of the acquired data, a pre-test was first conducted to gather information about their prior knowledge, while later the learners also took a post-test and a follow-up test. These achievements were cross-referenced with the pre-tests and were the basis for the conclusions of this research. During the lessons, students filled in a worksheet with questions related to the topic. Two variations of worksheets were developed and they differed in the formulation of the synthesis of results. It can be clearly established from the data gathered from the tests that all the learners made advancing steps in their knowledge and that they were able to reach the learning objectives for the subject matters of wind and water cycle. However, there were statistically significant differences in the tests between the group provided with the synthesis of results and the group that did not have them. This means that the gathered data speak to the positive influence of using the synthesis of results. The group whose handouts included the synthesis of result was more successful at achieving learning objectives and at solving the follow up test. This is crucial information for the guidelines for this teaching method. Due to the limited number of participants and a smaller scale of studied topics, the results of this research cannot be generalised. The result helped give insight into the knowledge acquired while using educational board games and worksheets with the synthesis of results. The findings point toward further research, e.g. on a larger scale, other contents, different form of syntheses of results, studies of the learner’s perspective on this style of learning etc