Achieving competencies with grammar school students through utilisation of selected didactical principles in traditional and active teaching – geography class case study: “Hydrography of Serbia”

Abstract

Lecture-based teaching is still the prevalent form of teaching in almost all secondary schools in Serbia.Although active teaching cannot eliminate all the shortcomings in the teaching of Geography, this particularform gives the best opportunities for understanding individual abilities and preferences of students.The principal aim of the study was to explore which way of teaching (modern-active or traditional-passive) is more beneficial for motivating students’ learning and acquiring competencies (knowledge,skills, and abilities) in Geography. Research was conducted to analyse competencies acquired by selectedhigh school students through the application of certain didactic principles in the third grade ofGrammar school “Laza Kostić” (Novi Sad, Serbia) with the topic “Hydrography of Serbia”. Fieldwork investigationwas comprised of conducted survey questionnaire (with pupils evaluating motivation andparticipation in the process of teaching Geography, as well as activities and learning/acquiring certaingeographical content through selected didactic principles, forms, methods, and tools) and the competencytest. Descriptive statistics was used for calculating the percentage and average values. The independentt-test was used in order to determine whether there is a statistically significant difference betweenthe experimental and control group regarding the self-evaluation of motivation, participation inteaching, and learning. The difference in terms of acquiring competencies between experimental andcontrol groups was explored by the Chi-square test (χ2). In order to determine whether there is a correlationbetween self-evaluation in terms of motivation, cooperation, and learning, as well as in theknowledge test between the experimental and control groups, Pearson’s correlation coefficient (r) hasbeen calculated. The results indicate that the students have higher level of motivation, and are moreinterested in learning and acquiring knowledge when the teacher organises the lecture through activelearning techniques. The knowledge and skills resulting from these kinds of classes are higher. Also, theresults obtained from this type of experimental classes, showed that with an increase of skills and abilexperiities,there is no increase in knowledge implying that modern (active) teaching presented better resultsthan the traditional teaching format, but not in all analysed segments