Today, increasingly more attention is given to knowledge construction. In this article it is discussed how much nature, its objects and phenomena features are important forming a certain system of knowledge about nature. Research show that features cannot be ignored, one should focus and reconsider how our students are guided towards feature identification. During the first years of life, the child already experiences specific environmental features. Later, the knowledge of features (to remember, cognize, define…) and understanding (to retell, explain...) guide further: teach to compare, group, classify.
The analysis aim was to give methodological advice to primary school teachers and to all interested in natural science education on how to teach students to cognize and understand the features of natural objects, phenomena and to develop comparison, grouping and classification abilities.
Aims: 1) to discuss what it is a feature; 2) to analyse what the feature’s expression is in preschool and pre-primary education programmes; 3) to present activity episodes, task examples on how to teach during nature cognition lessons to recognize features according to which the procedures of comparison, grouping, and classification are possible.
Introducing what the feature is, the synonyms of features are introduced as well (feature, peculiarity, criterion, symptom), it is explained what the feature defines, what the difference is between quantitative and qualitative features. Discussing the feature expression in education programmes, 4 programmes were analysed on this question (preschool, pre-primary school, primary school world cognition programme and standardised world cognition programme). Clarity, accuracy, attention to detail of the discussed question has been noticed in the standardised world cognition programme. The questions of how to teach primary school students to be observant and to find natural object features, and what to do having found them are shared in the third part of the article. Several concrete recommendations are given here on how to teach to recognize some or other animate and inanimate natural object and phenomena features. Together are presented orientation questions, objective commentaries, possible students’ answers because the author has already tried these activities with the primary school students.
Keywords: natural science education, classification abilities, comparison abilities, object features, primary education.
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