Abstract:

In order to improve the quality of education, modern didactics is in constant search for solutions to alleviate and eliminate numerous shortcomings of traditional teaching. The position of students in education has been in focus of a number of scientific studies. Modern pedagogic and methodical solutions advocate for the active acquisition of knowledge through the students' own intellectual effort and experience. One of the main tasks of teaching is to prepare students for independent learning and the application of acquired knowledge in everyday life. To develop these competences, it is necessary to motivate students for independent research and learning in the classroom. The application of discovery learning strategy has proven to be an effective approach with a positive effect on curiosity, involvement and motivation of students in the learning process. This kind of learning strategy requires the teacher's expertise and creativity, which will stimulate students curiosity and activity. The process of training students for discovery learning should be implemented with a gradual transition from guided to independent discovery learning. One of the forms of learning through discovery, which finds wide application in biology teaching, is learning through experiments. Most often, it is about rediscovering truths that have already been verified and known in science. During this rediscovery process, the students independently reconstruct,in a concise form, the path to a scientific discovery. With the aim of successful application of learning through discovery in regular classes, the paper provides theoretical framework of this learning strategy and an example of a scenario for a biology lesson "The Role and Importance of Enzymes" from the Biology teaching and learning program for the 8th grade of primary school in the Republic of Serbia. The given teaching scenario is an example of how classical teaching can be effectively combined with discovery learning.

Keywords:

Discovery learning, biology teaching, primary school, active learning.