Experiments in the teaching of electricity and light as part of the science and technology subject for fourth grade students

This master's thesis, titled Experimental Work when Learning about Electricity and Light in Science and Technology Class in Fourth Grade of Primary School, discusses how individual teaching methods, adopted during experimental work, affect the permanence of pupils' knowledge. In class, teachers intentionally adopt different teaching methods to ensure that their classes are interesting and help pupils gain permanent knowledge. In doing so, teachers are concerned how effective individual teaching methods actually are, how they help pupils obtain permanent knowledge, and how individual teaching methods are reflected in pupil's interest in the science and technology class. The theoretical part of this master's thesis presents individual teaching methods, experimental work, cognitive abilities, and the principle of multiple intelligences. The empirical part portrays the findings on suitability of individual teaching methods when teaching about electricity and light, and how these are reflected in pupil's knowledge and understanding of these thematic clusters. The findings were obtained through examinations, opinion surveys, and a survey on multiple intelligences, conducted among pupils of two fourth grades, where one group was taught using the frontal instruction method, while in the second group, the group teaching approach was adopted. Based on the research results, we can conclude that the adoption of the frontal instruction method results in better understanding and greater permanence of knowledge in pupils, who learnt about electricity and light, that there are no differences among pupils in relation to multiple intelligences, and that pupils who attended the group teaching class were more satisfied with the science class after the research than those who attended the frontal instruction class. With the help of this research and its results, teachers and other teaching staff may find it easier to select the suitable teaching method when teaching fourth-graders in primary school about electricity and light