Problems of teachers related to teaching optional science subjects in elementary schools in Serbia

Abstract

In the Republic of Serbia, first to fourth graders have to choose three optional subjects from the list comprising six of them. These also include science subjects, Hands in Dough and The Guardians of Nature. The present paper deals with teaching optional science subjects in the elementary school, as well as with problems teachers may have when they teach them. The research involved 182 elementary school teachers from Vojvodina. The analytical and descriptive method was used in the research, whereas the instrument referred to a questionnaire based on the crucial aim. The teachers mostly teach The Guardians of Nature, more than Hands in Dough, because of the contents they consider less complex in the former case. Besides, they think that they do not have enough professional and methodological knowledge to use the methods of science, which is taught within the latter subject, and that they lack the needed literature and technical resourses, so they do not offer Hands in Dough to children. In addition, they need some further training considering the use of scientific method to be able to improve their competences for teaching such a subject and provide children with better knowledge from the field of natural sciences.