Abstract:

Monitoring and measuring of the primary school students' level of knowledge and skills in math by Swedish State Authorities show dangerous decreasing of them. Primary school students in Sweden consider math as a not interesting and difficult subject. Variety of teaching methods and technologies at Swedish primary schools generally stands on the traditional way of teaching with the implementation of some modern elements such as IT, collaborative work and etc. Our analysis of the praxis in Swedish primary schools shows that main tendency in the teaching process can be described as "overstructured" and "overinstructed" facilitation. In order to change students attitude toward learning math and make this subject more interesting, we implemented the Humanistic and Investigative Inquiry model. This model is a modification of well-known HSIO-method which was developed and tested in Finland. We investigated and found the ways of modification and implementation of this model into the diverse subculture of Swedish primary classroom. The Humanistic and Investigative Inquiry model is based on the interdisciplinary approach. This approach was used to create an interdisciplinary curriculum in math without destroying the goals of the Swedish National Curriculum. Our survey showed that primary school students' Knowledge Increase (KI, %) was 62%. Index of Interest was approaching 90% and Parents-Satisfy-Index was 95%. Creating the Interdisciplinary Learning Environment according to the Humanistic and Investigative Inquiry model enable the interest in learning, self-planning, and increasing self-confidence. Interdisciplinary Learning Environment encourages students to use their knowledge and practical skills of modern technology as the natural element of their subculture.

Keywords:

Interdisciplinary Curriculum, HIIO-model, Humanistic teaching, Modern Technology, Diverse Classroom, Interdisciplinary Math, Learning Environment.