Abstract:

It is not common practice in Slovakia to examine the real interests, abilities and needs of pupils before the creation of teaching materials (including educational programs). Standardly, the teaching materials are created first, based on the theoretical professional-didactic knowledge of the creators, and these are subsequently implemented in the classroom. In some cases, although their effectiveness is additionally verified, revisions of teaching materials are not usually carried out. In addition, in this process there is no reflection on the current interests and abilities of the pupils at the given level of education, or even the needs of society. Based on the above, the project "Optimization of Mathematics Teaching Materials based on an analysis of the current needs and abilities of pupils of younger school age” was approved for the period 2016-2020. In line with the government-approved “Knowledge for Prosperity” document, the project aims to offer alternative approaches to teaching mathematics in primary education based primarily on a thorough analysis of pupils' current interests and abilities, taking into account the requirements set out in the State Education Program. Based on the analysis of research results, one of the aims was to create dynamic and interactive materials (applets) published on the website. The planned outcomes of the project have and will be of a different nature - diversity in interests (eg in the form of acceptance of gender), differentiation according to abilities (level of difficulty of the applet) and so on. On the basis of the above, the selection and implementation of the educational material should be ensured to address the widest possible range of pupils of a given age. The different learning styles of pupils will also be respected, taking into consideration the principles of proportionality and illustration. In the creation of teaching materials for teaching mathematics at primary level, is undertaken by not only specialists in didactics of elementary mathematics, but also specialists in information and communication technologies, visual arts, social pedagogy, linguists, as well as prevention and adequacy of physical load of younger pupils age. In the paper, the authors present partial results of the research aimed at optimizing dynamic applets from mathematics for pupils of younger school age. The authors used a quantitative method of research and two questionnaires were created as research tools. The questionnaires were distributed in two stages. At the first stage, the research sample consisted of 131 respondents, namely teachers of primary education (extension studies). In the second stage, 56 respondents – fully qualified teachers, were addressed. The first group of respondents was selected by deliberate selection, in the second group we used available selection. The results of the research allow us to evaluate the quality and work with applets in terms of its content, didactic and technical processing. The authors present an analysis and interpretation of the results of respondents' responses to individual items in the questionnaire, which provided the basis for the review and optimization of the above-mentioned dynamic applets.

Keywords:

Optimization, mathematical applets, pupils of younger school age, questionnaire, teachers of primary education, fully qualified teachers.