@inbook{
author = "Putica, Katarina",
year = "2020",
abstract = "Modern society makes it a requirement of the educational systems to
prepare pupils for successful adaptation to the changeable conditions of life and professional market, which also presupposes the preparedness to apply the knowledge of
natural sciences, in order to overcome the numerous challenges caused by the fast scientific and technological development. Given that problem-based chemistry teaching
can provide a significant contribution to this cause, five students of the study program
Chemical Education at the Faculty of Chemistry University of Belgrade conducted a
survey in which 93 pupils of the seventh grade and 74 pupils of the eight grade of
elementary school took part, in order to learn about the pupils’ attitudes and experiences with this way of teaching. Students, also, comprised age appropriate tests, which
checked the pupils’ preparedness to apply the knowledge of chemistry, in order to
solve problems from everyday life. In this way, it was ascertained that the pupils from
both grades had previous experiences with the problem-based chemistry teaching, and
that they do not have negative attitude toward it. They find such a way of learning
to be more difficult, but also more interesting, possible learning difficulties could be
more easily overcome with more help form the teacher, or by learning within a group
of pupils, and in order to prevent them, the teacher must check whether the pupils possess enough previously acquired knowledge in order to solve the given problems. The
results of the tests show that the eighth grade pupils, having more experience with the
problem-based teaching, as well as the wider span of the previously acquired knowledge, were significantly more successful, in comparison to the seventh grade pupils. In
this way, pre-service chemistry teachers gained insight into the greatest challenges of
the problem-based teaching and the ways in which they could be overcome, thus improving their competencies for the implementation of this way of teaching.",
publisher = "Faculty of Education in Jagodina, University of Kragujevac, Serbia",
journal = "Professional competences for teaching in the 21st century, Proceedings of the International Conference Organised by the Faculty of Education in Jagodina on May 23−25, 2019",
booktitle = "Attitudes and experiences of elementary school pupils as guidelines for improving pre-service chemistry teachers’ competencies for the implementation of problem-based teaching",
pages = "159-172",
doi = "10.46793/pctja.19.159P"
}