Abstract:

Current research on the use of educational resources maps relatively well the materials that teachers and students use. However, we have less information on the purpose for which these educational resources are used and how students learn from them. For this research, we chose an unexplored group of respondents - students from Tertiary Professional Schools. According to the ISCED classification, this is a non-university form of education (European Qualifications Framework EQF 6), which is intended for secondary school graduates with a high school diploma. The duration of the studies is usually 3 - 3.5 years and students improve their qualifications in a specific specialisation. Compared to universities, these schools focus more on the practical side of the field. Graduates are awarded the degree of DiS, Diploma Specialist.

The aim of this paper is to describe the strategies higher vocational school of education students use with learning resources and to find out which structural verbal and nonverbal components they use to support their own learning. These findings will help us in the next step to correlate students' manifested preferences with how users actually work with the stated components. The theoretical basis of the research is the findings from learning from text. The issue was explored through a qualitative methodological design. The method used was semi-structured interviews with 5 students of the Higher Vocational School of Education. The respondents were selected using the maximum variation sampling method (Cohen, Manion, 2018). The interviews obtained were recorded and a verbatim transcription was made. Data analysis was carried out through open coding (Flick, 2006) using atlas.ti software version 7. Initial findings suggest that students prefer nonverbal components, especially pictorial elements and graphic symbols to present new learning. Students emphasise specific features of the textbooks - clarity and professional correctness.

Keywords:

Teaching and learning resources, use of the resources, verbal and non-verbal components, pictorial elements, extent of use, purposes of use.