Dealing with diabetes topics in primary school

The diploma work presents the way of choosing themes related to diabetes as a consistent part of the Home economics subject in the sixth grade and as a part of Biology subject in the eight grade of primary school. The main aim of the diploma work is to find out whether the theme of diabetes as a part of the learning programme in the sixth and eight grades is relevant and how widely should it be discussed, concerning different ways of teaching and using different methods. The research covered 61 pupils. In the eight grade, in Biology class, there was 40 pupils included. 19 pupils of eight grade were learning about diabetes with the methods of frontal learning and interpretation. On the other hand, in the second division of the eight class, there were 21 pupils learning about diabetes with the method of group work. There were 9 pupils involved in group work in the sixth grade during Home economics. In the other section of the sixth grade, there were 12 pupils learning with the method of frontal learning and the method of interpretation. My main concern was the knowledge of the pupils about diabetes before and after the pupil hour. 14 days after the pupils hour, I again checked their knowledge on the subject. In each class, I used two different teaching methods and ways of teaching. I wanted to know whether the frontal way of teaching is more appropriate for discussing the themes on diabetes than group work and vice versa. The pupils solved the test of knowledge before the pupils hour, after the pupils hour and 14 days after it. They upgraded their knowledge about the types of diabetes, hyperglicemia and hypoglicemia. The pupils correctly connected diabetes with the blood glucose level, they recognised the symptoms of diabetes and learned about the function of insulin. Besides the mentioned knowledge, they also gained additional knowledge on the disease. The results showed that the diabetes themes are appropriate for the sixth and eight grades; in both grades, on average, the frontal way of learning is more appropriate than group work, probably the main reason for this is due to the fact that teachers use the frontal way of learning more often than group work