RESEARCH APPROACH IN TEACHING NATURE AND SOCIETY

Abstract

In recent decades, great importance has been attached to teaching that promotes an active role of students in the learning process, and therefore the development of critical and divergent thinking in the teaching process. The aim of the research approach is to encourage students to independently investigate, discover, conclude and thus arrive at knowledge with the appropriate instructions of the teacher. For this research, we aimed to examine the educational practice of teachers in the implementation of the research approach in teaching Nature and Society. The purpose was to find out how familiar the teachers are with the concept of research approach, as well as to provide insight into teachers’ competences and motivation, the frequency of their implementation of the research approach in teaching Nature and Society, and the interaction patterns and teaching methods they use. The results show that The World Around Us and Nature and Society syllabuses sufficiently (60%) provide instructions for content study through research work, and that teachers acquired a solid amount of knowledge about the application of this way of working during their education (69.4%). More than 80% of teachers believe that they have the competence to plan and implement a research approach in teaching. The results also indicate that when implementing the research approach, teachers use interaction patterns and teaching methods that enable greater student activity. Despite the above said, this research approach is not sufficiently applied, and the explanation provided is the lack of time and resources needed for research.

Keywords

• research approach
• teaching of nature and society
• competences
• motivation
• interaction patterns and teaching methods