Abstract:

A topic that receives much attention, not only according to the main Italian (Italian Guidelines for the Curriculum in the Primary School - 2012 Edition) and European law documents (Recommendation of the European Parliament and the Council, 18 December 2006), is that of animals. This is a vast subject that can not be addressed in a single school cycle. Hence emerges the need to consider the main aspects that characterize the animals. One of these concerns their morphology, different from species to species but which maintains common traits on which it is necessary to focus attention. Furthermore, it is essential to address biology at school with a modern interpretation, based on active teaching methods. In these perspectives, the use of an innovative didactic approach in Biological Sciences has been proposed in an Italian Primary School (4th class), using laboratory teaching and adopting metacognitive methods, cooperative learning, inductive methods, informatics, and dialogic forms. The lessons followed the phases of the scientific method (observational-comparative method) and adopted effective tools, with meaningful backgrounds and practical activities. Contents of the lessons concerned the kingdom Animalia and in particular some invertebrate phyla: Porifera, Mollusca, and Annelida. Observation sheets have been especially drawn up in order to provide adequate support to the laboratory activity of the children. The obtained results showed that these teaching practices are excellent tools to enhance the learning of sciences nowadays. In particular, the laboratory and the cooperative learning, where the student is an active participant, proved to be a crucial step for lifelong learning. In addition, they have also proved effective for heterogeneous classes, as they have been useful to partially overcome the differences between non-disabled students and those with various degrees of cognitive disability.

Keywords:

Life sciences, primary school, invertebrate animals, scientific method.