The purpose of this study is to investigate and understand the changing attitude of children and their teachers towards silkworms, while observing the silkworm throughout it's life cycle.
This study attempt to answer the following questions:
1. What...
The purpose of this study is to investigate and understand the changing attitude of children and their teachers towards silkworms, while observing the silkworm throughout it's life cycle.
This study attempt to answer the following questions:
1. What do the children learn throughout the observation of the silkworms' life cycle?
2. How does the teachers attitude and understanding of silkworms change during the activity?
The study group consisted of 6 children, all age five. They were comprised of three male and three female students. They had no prior experience raising silkworms.
This participant observation contained 15 sessions over 10 weeks. The children's dialogue was recorded over 15 sessions during the course of the silkworms' life cycle.
The summary of this procedure is as follows:
Plan of activity- Planning of the activity, and the aquisition of silkworms.
Progress of activity- Observation, prediction & inference, control of variables, experimentation.
Evaluation of the activity - What knowledge did the children gain from this activity?
- How does the teachers' attitude and understanding change during the course of the activity?
The results of this study can be summarized as follows:
1. As the children continually raised and cared for the animals, their outlook became more positive and their understanding increased.
Negative pre-conceptions were erased, positive experiences reinforced and a mutual thinking process was nurtured.
2. The teachers' attitude and understanding of silkworms were changed for the better.