Abstract:

Programmed instruction is increasingly present in contemporary teaching. Programmed instruction is a teaching method in which the course material is specifically logically structured and presented to students in smaller parts, which they adopt independently and gradually step by step at their own pace of learning, controlling the results and their progress by continuous feedback. Programmed instruction benefits students' individual abilities, their different interests and abilities, as well as different rhythm and speed of learning. This makes the teaching work more intensified, rationalized and individualized.

Although programmed instruction affirms a student as an active subject in teaching, meeting the demands of contemporary teaching at the same time, the willingness of Serbian schools to abandon the traditional educational paradigm is still insufficient. The reason for its minor application in Biology teaching in Serbian schools lies in the lack of preparedness of Biology teachers and their inexperience in the delivery of programmed instruction, the lack of programmed material for teaching Biology in teaching practice, and the lack of IT equipment necessary for the application of the programmed instruction.

The importance of developing students' ability to independently manage the learning process, to have self-evaluation and awareness of their own learning activities is increasingly emphasized, which inevitably imposes a need for greater representation of interactive learning models, such as programmed instruction. According to numerous findings in the literature, the qualities of such instruction have been experimentally verified and confirmed. In order to increase the representation of programmed instruction in teaching practice, this paper highlights the importance of programmed instruction in the primary school, and special attention is focused on the concrete application of this teaching model in Biology teaching in the primary schools in the Republic of Serbia. The paper provides a part of the programmed material for the implementation of the curriculum content Structure and functions of the respiratory organs, breathing movements, which is prescribed by the Biology curriculum for the 7th grade of the primary school, as an incentive for Biology teachers to change their own practice and find good solutions to the challenges they face. The actuality of this topic is reflected in the need to change the instruction organization and its modernization.

Keywords:

Programmed Instruction, Biology Teaching, Primary School, Instructional Material.