Loodusainete õpetajate suhtlustavad Eesti koolis
Kuupäev
2008
Autorid
Ajakirja pealkiri
Ajakirja ISSN
Köite pealkiri
Kirjastaja
Tartu Ülikool
Abstrakt
Kirjeldus
The main aim of this bachelor's thesis was to find out the communication habits of the science
teachers` in Estonian school. There are many reasons why it is important to examine that. At first
there have been very few studies about the communication between Estonian teachers. Also the
theme is topical at the moment, as it appeared in the recent PISA study that Estonian students`
knowledge about the science subjects is on much higher level than previously expected. At the
same time TIMSS 2003 showed that Estonian science teachers are one of the most unsatisfied
ones in the world. Also students` attitude towards science subjects is not good. The question
arises if better communication between teachers could make them more satisfied and hence
advantage in Estonian students` better attitude towards science subjects.
In the course of the bachelor's thesis the author planned to find out if and about which topics
Estonian science teachers are communicating. The communication is connected to school culture
and organizational communication, which are both in turn connected to the teachers’ satisfaction.
It is also important to study this topic because science subjects – physics, chemistry, biology –
are all integrated to one another. For that reason the subjects are taught as one subject – Science
– in many countries in the world. That helps to synchronize the concepts, definitions, methods
and approaches, which are used to teach a certain theme in the better way. Teaching science
subjects according to the discipline focused approach might lead to the result where a student
does not have a connected understanding about the natural processes. In the worst scenario they
don’t even understand the content of their studies; they just learn the one-sided definitions
presented by the teacher by heart. As there is no constructive learning, the student forgets what
he has learned after the test. That means that generally he will not use the knowledge that he has
acquired in school in his every day life. That is not in accordance with National Curriculum for
Primary School and Gymnasium. According to it one of the aims of the school`s activities is to
accomplish that the high school graduate is an individual, who thinks systematically and sees
connections.
It is clear that in achieving these goals also the teacher’s communication plays an important role.
Hence the present bachelor's thesis focused on if and how much the teachers are communicating
in the topics, which are connected to their subject field and how much they communicate in other
topics. The communication networks were also examined.
The author examined school as an organization, which members` better communication may
bring benefit to all organization participants. The author used her theoretical knowledge as well
as knowledge about social science study methods, which she has acquired during her studies.
Mainly the author focused on describing and analyzing the communication habits. In this study
the author was not going profoundly into the aspects of educational sciences, because these
outputs are not included in the aims of this bachelor’s thesis.
The used method was a survey (questionnaire). It enables to use a wider sampling than for
example interviews. For some questions about the present situations teachers were asked to
describe also the ideal version of the situation. That helped to prevent the situation where
teachers are answering as they think they are expected to.
The established aims of the bachelor’s thesis have been accomplished. After analyzing the results
it can be said that teachers do communicate with each other by discussing the subjects from their
subject field but the communication is not regular and systematic. It is rather occasional. There is
still room for growth and development in teachers` planned and organized collaboration and this
is the issue schools` directorate should take into consideration. These results are in accord with
some results from previous studies (e.g. Salumaa 2007).
Märksõnad
H Social Sciences (General), bakalaureusetööd