Importance of fieldwork for future elementary education teachers

V prispevku prikazujemo rezultate raziskave, opravljene na vzorcu študentov prvega letnika Oddelka za razredni pouk Pedagoške fakultete Univerze v Mariboru pri predmetu Naravoslovje/biologija. Namen raziskave je bil, ugotoviti, ali med študenti prihaja do razlik v poznavanju nekaterih rastlin, živali in metod nabiranja živali zaradi dejavnikov, kot so: stratum predhodno obiskane osnovne šole, bližina nekaterih življenjskih okolij v okolici doma in predhodna udeležba dodatnih bioloških aktivnosti. Zanimalo nas je tudi, kako na to vplivajo aktivnosti študentov zunaj učilnice - na terenu. Ugotovili smo, da vsi trije dejavniki vplivajo na prepoznavanje rastlin in živali, da se je znanje študentov tekom vaj izboljšalo in da so v vseh nalogah po terenskih vajah boljše rezultate dosegali študentje, ki so znanje pridobivali tudi neposredno na terenu, kar potrjuje pomembno vlogo izkustva.The article presents the results of research conducted on a sample of first year students from the Faculty of Education, University of Maribor. The purpose of the study was to find out whether there are differences among students when identifying plants and animals, applying collecting methods for living organisms and the impact of factors such as: stratum of the finished education, vicinity of natural environments in the home neighbourhood, and previous experiences with biological activities. In addition, we assessed the influence of field activities outside the classroom: identification of plants, animals, and applications of collecting methods for living organisms. We found that all three factors influenced the identification of plants and animals, thus in-creasing student knowledge. The students who attend activities outside the classroom obtain better resultsthis finally confirms the importance of field experience