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Personality and motivation of participants in the senior university courses
Jedlička, Tomáš ; Mourek, Jan (advisor) ; Janštová, Vanda (referee)
The population of the Czech republic is getting older. That applies to other European states, including the most advanced ones. In response to that, universities through out the Czech republic have began offering third age university for senior citizens. For my thesis, I decided to conduct studies on this group of inviduals. This group of seniors that have decided to enroll back in school are eager to learn something new, here at the University. In this thesis I am studying personality characteristics of third age university students. From this research, I have managed to create a general profile of the aforementioned student. Another task was to find out what was the motivation and the reason for them to attend the university. The motivation is in many respects similar to the studies already carried out on this topic, but due to the method I chose for my research, I was able to get further under the surface. The research was done using semi-structured interviews that were on average 1 hour long. Key words: old adult, university of the third age, old adult motivation, qualitative research, profile of student U3A
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What Motivates the Students to Study Biology Teaching?
Klášterková, Tereza ; Mourek, Jan (advisor) ; Janštová, Vanda (referee)
The diploma thesis deals with the motivation of university students to study the teaching of biology. The aim of this thesis was to find which factors influenced the students when deciding the field of their studies. Student motivation was examined using a qualitative method of semi-structured interviews. The research group consisted of 11 university students of the master's degree program of the Faculty of Science and the Faculty of Education at Charles University in the teaching fields combined with biology. The research results show that the primary interest in biology was evident in respondents already during their early childhood or later at an elementary school. In relation to biology, the respondents were influenced by the family and the teachers at either primary or secondary schools. The thesis presents extrinsic and intrinsic motives for the study of biology. The choice of teaching was affected the most by the interest in working with children and the expectation of creative work in the future, even though the respondents were aware of the low financial valuation, the time and psychological demands of the profession. The biology teachers also opted for the possibility of further subject developing and supporting interest in biology interest among pupils. The thesis also contains a...
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Evaluation of upper secondary students' microscopy skills
Míková, Zuzana ; Janštová, Vanda (advisor) ; Mourek, Jan (referee)
High-school students are less interested in science then before. Despite importance of science for our life and for description of nature around us, students lose motivation for studying it. The approach of teacher is critical for focusing students' attention. Lessons should be based on linking of the education with daily-life and biology provides plenty of possibilities to achieve the goal, especially employing hand-on education, practical examples and exercises. One of the most effective way to show the beauty and a complexity of organism structure is by using microscopes. Many different techniques have been used to prepare education materials - picture, videos or whole movies from micro-word. Nevertheless, a classical optical microscopy is by far the most common training activity during the practical courses. An evaluation of this education aspects is, therefore, critical for further method development. This diploma thesis is focused on establishing of evaluation techniques and subsequent analysis of the current state of students' microscopy skills. First of all, the elementary set of knowledge and the correct microscopy work-flow were established in collaboration with eleven experienced teachers. Based on these results, two types of surveys were designed. One of them was dedicated to teachers...
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Attitudes of high school students toward genetically modified organisms
Brousková, Mariana ; Janštová, Vanda (advisor) ; Čížková, Věra (referee)
The diploma thesis focuses on investigating attitudes of czech high school students toward genetically modified organisms (= GMO). The main objectives of this thesis are to investigate students' attitudes toward, and knowledge of GMO, to find out any relation between attitudes toward, and knowledge of GMO. I found out if there is any relation between students' attitudes toward GMO and other factors like family environment (level and type of eduction of parents, religion), school environment (teachers who teach students, school) or place of residence. Data colletion was carried out by quantitative questionnaire survey among 185 Czech students of Prague's and out-of-town's grammar schools from 10 different classes. My findings show that the attitudes of Czech students toward GMO are positive and are not influenced by gender, parents' education, the students' attitudes toward biology, type of students' planned studies at university or the location of their school. However, at the same time, a statistically significant difference was found in the case of free-time activities, the teacher who teaches students and the purchase of organic food. In the case of the students' knowledge, a significant difference was found in the case of the type of the father's education, the type of the students' planned...
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Dissections used as a teaching method in biological education on secondary schools - attitudes of pupils and teachers
Pfeifferová, Andrea ; Mourek, Jan (advisor) ; Janštová, Vanda (referee)
This diploma thesis investigates attitudes of students and teachers of secondary schools (gymnasia) towards the use of dissections into educational process. Questionnaire survey is a part of the research, by which opinions about animal dissections are examined in terms of a particular interest in dissections, of general interest in natural sciences, disgust towards the peculiar facts and situations taking place during dissections and finally in terms of ethical standpoint of all respondents. Statistic processing of results examined relations between all presented aspects and between gender, age, school grade and targeting of studies, experience with dissections and interest of all teachers themselves. At the beginning of the inquiry the following research questions were stated: 1. Are attitudes of students towards dissections during the lessons of biology different between genders? 2. Are those attitudes affected by factors such as subject preference, targeted field of study, own experience with dissections, favoured method of teaching anatomy or owning a pet? 3. Do mutual correlations between the attitude of a student and a particular teacher exist? 4. Are standpoints of teachers towards dissections during the lessons of biology influenced by various factors such as implementation into educational...
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Comparison of attractiveness of educational models vs. real mounted zoological specimens for secondary chool pupils
Šibravová, Jitka ; Mourek, Jan (advisor) ; Janštová, Vanda (referee)
This thesis deals with the preference of pupils at secondary schools (gymnasia) for different types of teaching aids in zoology education. The main objective was to determine whether the pupils rate educational models as more attractive than the real zoological preserved specimens and whether their preferences are related to their susceptibility to potentially phobic stimuli, realism of the object or whether preferences differ between the sexes. Selected models included entire animals as well as animal organs. The research was conducted at selected secondary schools (gymnasia) in Prague and Jablonec nad Nisou using a questionnaire and a preference test. Secondary school pupils and their biology teachers participated in this research. The realistic design of each object was assessed by researchers and students from the Faculty of Science Charles University using a scale questionnaire. The results showed that students rated the real zoological preserved specimens as more attractive compared to teaching models, with no dependence on whether the objects were entire or anatomical. Effect of gender on overall preference has not been showed; however, the boys had a tendency to evaluate generally unpopular organisms more positively than girls. No influence of susceptibility to potentially phobic stimuli,...
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Influence of practical courses on the upper secondary school students' motivation to study biology
Janštová, Vanda ; Pavlasová, Lenka (advisor) ; Čížková, Věra (referee) ; Stuchlíková, Iva (referee)
The reasons for the decline in students' interest in science have been studied for the last decades. The key question is how to stimulate this interest and motivate students and pupils to study science. Part of this thesis was testing the influence of practical courses on upper secondary school students' motivation toward studying biology. To start with, it was found out how many practical courses were taught for each biology topic at Czech upper secondary schools. Molecular biology and genetics emerged as one of the topics with the lowest number of practical courses. Therefore, molecular biology practical courses have been proposed and tested. It was shown that these practical courses can increase students' motivation scores. The possible influece of age, gender and number of practical courses during biology lessons on motivation was tested as well. Motivation of Czech students was compared to motivation of New Zealand students. Younger students and boys were more motivated to study biology in both countries. New Zealand students were more motivated than Czech students. Motivated students like the participants in the Biology Olympiad, Students' Professional Activities, biology summer course and optional biology courses were used to describe the origin of their motivation toward biology.
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Effectiveness of organism recognition using angiosperms as an example
Bukáčková, Alžběta ; Janštová, Vanda (advisor) ; Novotný, Petr (referee)
Students are less interested in science studies in this time. Yet, it is evolving and indispensable field (medicine, genetics). Various fields of biology students are evaluated differently. Botany is not very popular for students and often even for their teachers. More popular may be, for example, human biology, zoology and emerging fields such as genetics. Studying of plants isn't interesting for pupils, memories of learning about plants for them often spending hours with the botanical atlas without practical training in the field or on an excursion. There is a reason to writing this thesis about identification of angiosperms in high school. The thesis deals with different methods used for teaching identification of angiosperm plants at Prague high schools and their effectiveness. It compares the different methods used by teachers of these schools, focuses on with ways of testing plants cognition and the number of species that pupils should be able to recognize. The high school teachers' expectations are compared with the university teachers' expectations of the knowledge of incoming biology students. Effectiveness of teaching was tested by recognizing the required species. Students were asked to recognise the fresh plants. The success rate of students of teachers who use to teach different...
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