Abstract:

Experience is the key for people to remember something, because it affects the cognitive processes through its intensity, especially thinking, memory and attention. In our paper, we describe a teaching experience in which we applied selected activities to evoke student interest in the subject. We included selected experience activities in the chemistry curriculum for seventh-grade students of a primary school. During the activity, the students solved assignments and tasks and conducted a school experiment in selected activities. We focused on three topics: “Substances and their properties,” “Water and its properties” and “Physical and chemical processes.” The assessment was done individually, but also in groups, in the form of observation during the activities. After each performed activity, to verify the effectiveness of the experience teaching, we also chose a knowledge test, which also contained questions related to the content of the discussed topic. These were crucial in our evaluation. In processing the experimental results, we set limits the students have to meet when doing the activity. In observation, the pass limit was 70% active engagement in the activity. This limit was exceeded in the first (72%) and the third (70%) activity, but reached only 68% for the second activity, which we can consider as partially met. When assessing the worksheets, the pass limit was set at above 60%. This limit was exceeded in all three activities, with the best results in the second activity (88%). The success limit for the knowledge tests was set at above 80%. The questions observed by us corresponding to the performed activities focused on experience learning surpassed our expectations and reached values above 95%. Taking into account the results, in our opinion experience teaching can enrich the process of teaching chemistry at a primary school. During the implementation, the students were exceptionally creative, had many questions, actively cooperated and the overall atmosphere in the class, even during the most difficult tasks, was pleasant.

Keywords:

Experiential Learning, Primary School, Empirical Research, Pedagogical Experience, Education.