Flexible differentiation in mathematics in primary school

This thesis deals with multilevel lessons in the context of flexible differentiation with Mathematics at primary level. We wanted to find out the pupils' attitudes towards flexible differentiation and to compare the mathematic achievements of pupils within the level groups as well as between the level groups. The theoretical part introduces the different differentiation types, which are present in our schools, taxonomy skills that help teachers put together the tasks and to assess them, the mathematical problems as well as examples of tasks and exercises from the thematic set Numerals Up to One Million which were solved by the level-group pupils participating in the study. The empirical part deals with our findings regarding the pupils’ attitude to flexible differentiation, to lessons in level groups, the differences in knowledge between pupils of different levels when solving various-difficulty tasks according to Gagne. We learn the differences in achievements of pupils within the level groups and what the connection between the attitude to multilevel lessons and achievements of pupils is. The survey involved 32 fifth grade pupils. Data were collected from test results of the thematic set Numerals Up to One Million and a questionnaire. The survey results show that most pupils have a positive attitude to multilevel school lessons; however they still prefer classroom lessons. Further on, the pupils of higher level groups are more successful in solving the tasks and exercises of various taxonomic levels according to Gagne than those from lower level groups. We have also found out that there is a correlation between achievements of pupils and attitudes towards teaching in multilevel groups: the pupils with better achievements had a better attitude to the multi level classes than the pupils who were less successful