engleski

The use of microscope in school biology teaching

During the last decade, the Republic of Croatia has been developing a modern educational system focused on a synergy of educational, pedagogic and functional competences in primary and secondary school students and university students. Teaching natural sciences must necessarily include active learning and research, with constant presence of critical thinking. It is essential to teach the students how to observe, generalise, conclude and think, as they are not acquiring mere knowledge, but also the cognitive strategies. Teachers should master the techniques of creating the efficient combinations of teaching methods, in order to guide students to clear and complete concepts which are the basis of quality knowledge. Teaching biology and life sciences in primary and secondary schools involves a lot of material that is not visible to the naked eye and which is valuable for the students’ direct insights and discoveries. As these are of key importance for the students’ understanding of cell structure, organelle, microorganisms and similar, is it essential to bring this micro-world closer to students and to use microscopes. As a teaching method, microscopy is primarily defined as a visual method, used as a demonstration method and method for practical work. It includes using a microscope as a teaching aid and sample slides as teaching tool. The survey was conducted in 73 primary schools and 30 high schools, mostly with grammar school programme. The results showed that 94% of schools in Split/Dalmatia County have at least one microscope, with monocular light microscopes of primary importance for biology classes. Most common types of microscopes used in teaching are monocular light microscopes (80%), followed by binocular optical microscopes (16%), digital microscopes (3%) and stereomicroscopes (1%). Animal tissues and plant structure cross-sections are being primarily used in demonstrations, while in conducting a practical work, sample slides most commonly contained plant, protozoan and reproductive cells. In the survey 61% of participants answered to use a microscope only occasionally, whereas 39% of participants often. Average grade awarded to the level of satisfaction with using microscopy in teaching was 3.73. The high number of schools showed to be equipped with microscopes, 97 out of the total number of schools. Only 6 schools did not show to have access to any technical equipment for microscopy. Teachers are sometimes forced to be less engaged in microscopy since, for inexperienced teachers, it represents too much time and effort to create and organise a practical work, with no guarantee that the time and effort will be worthwhile. As main reasons for not using a microscope, the participants stated that this is due to lack of microscopes (53%) and demanding biology and life science syllabus (30%). But, it is evident that among 103 participants in the survey there were no teachers who openly avoid working with a microscope.

teachers, microscopes ; practical work ; active learning ; microscopy

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