The Development of Natural Science Literacy in Pupils in the First Stage of Basic School Using the Method of Managed Discovery

The article presents the results of research on the usefulness of a proposed concept of technique, technical discoveries for improving the level of science literacy among elementary-school pupils. It investigates in detail the effectiveness of the concept for raising pupils‘ problem-solving abilities in an experimental group. Using a concrete test task it showed how knowledge of electrical conductivity increased in the experimental group. Education based on the proposed concept, with principles of pedagogical constructivism, use of managed discovery methods, and pupils‘ application of knowledge through experimentation, proved more effective than the use of the transmission method‘s in the control group. Accordingly, we believe that teachers who teach using the method of direct transmission of knowledge should reevaluate their methods and introduced managed discovery techniques. The new educational system uses a duplex model of curriculum, thus offering enough room for pupil‘s key competence development at their personally accessible level. Schools can plan their educational programmes to enable them to go beyond the frame of factual knowledge acquirement on the level of retention. In this way it is possible to lead pupils to deeper a deeper understanding of a theme and its connection to practice, and to genuinely develop their problem-solving abilities.