Does the Teaching Strategy Affect Understanding the Concept of the Balance of Nature?

Abstract

Understanding and sharing knowledge about the balance of nature in living communities is essential for the survival of humanity. In the research, we wanted to examine whether teaching strategy affects the conceptual understanding of the balance of nature among fourth graders. In doing so, fourth-grade elementary school students were randomized in three groups where the same teacher taught the first group about the balance of nature relying on presentation alone, the second group watched a video along and listened to the teacher’s presentation without additional explanations, while the third group had a guided video viewing accompanied with explanations. Students’ knowledge was tested before and after the education. Using a two-way factorial ANOVA, no significant differences between groups were identified in knowledge on living communities, whilst education appeared to be effective for both. This indicates that collaborative learning and active cooperation of students are important and help students gain the required conceptual understanding of certain contents without ICT support.