Teachersʼ assessment of active learning in teaching Nature and Society

Abstract

The basic role of contemporary education is to guide pupils towards active learning and make them contribute to all segments of the teaching process. Since active learning leads towards efficient education, and since it encourages and develops knowledge, skills and attitudes, teachers should promote this type of learning from the beginning of one’s schooling. This paper’s aim was to study to what extent teachers conduct various teaching strategies in active learning in teaching Nature and Society and if the environment stimulates the active acquisition of knowledge, skills and attitudes. The research was conducted on a sample of teachers (N = 184) from three counties in the Republic of Croatia. The research results show that active learning and various teaching strategies are to a great extent conducted in a stimulating environment at the beginning of education, but at the same time they point to the need of a higher encouragement of this learning form, for pupils to be able to learn actively and create learning communities at later levels of education.