DO WE NEED BIOLOGICAL SKILLS FOR OUR FUTURE LIFE? THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL PUPILS VIEWS ON THE IMPORTANCE OF BIOLOGICAL SKILLS

Abstract

The problematic of the biological skills is in the region of Czech Republic investigated on the very low level. The definition of the biological skill should be come out from the definition of general skill, but there are differences in the defining of this concept. Our research was focused on the importance of acquired skills in the biology at the end of the elementary schools according to pupils. The sample size contained from the 91 pupils from all grades of elementary schools in the Czech Republic. The age of respondents was from 11 to 16 years. The measurement tool was a questionnaire included 61 Likert type items dividing into four categories following: 1. Identification of biological questions and problems; 2. The acquiring of biological information; 3. The processing of biological information and 4. The evaluation of results and the determining of conclusions. All items were in the positive meaning. The effect of year of study, gender and final mark from biology was measured on the perceiving importance of biological skills. There was used methods of quantitative evaluation, from descriptive statistics it was mean score and standard deviation and from inductive statistic it was ANOVA, MANOVA and Cronbach's alpha coefficient