In the recent, and ongoing, COVID-19 pandemic, remote or online K-12 schooling became the norm. Even if the pandemic tails off somewhat, remote K-12 schooling will likely remain more frequent than it was before the pandemic. A mainstay technique of online learning, at least at the college and graduate level, has been the online discussion. Since…

In Slovenia, textbooks are an integral part of the curriculum. Nationally certified textbooks guarantee both teachers and students that they provide all of the necessary knowledge in each subject. There are many available certified textbooks for each subject and teachers must decide which will be the source of instruction for their students. Our…

The present paper presents the results of a survey on outdoor lessons conducted by teachers of the subject Science and Technology in the 4th and 5th grades of primary school in the school's vicinity. It examines differences between teachers themselves and between teachers and students, as well as the ideas and limitations of outdoor lessons. The…

FRIENDS for Life is an anxiety prevention programme that integrates cognitive behavioural approach with social and emotional learning. The current study examines the effects of the FRIENDS for Life programme in a school environment, with outcomes focusing on anxiety and aggression. The theoretical basis for the joint prevention and intervention of…

In the contemporary process of teaching fine arts, the students' own creative expression and art appreciation are used to encourage learners towards both perception and reception; consequently, the evaluation and internalisation of works of art play an equally important role. In art education practice, we manage to provide adequate incentives and…

An evidence-based, interactive teaching method peer instruction (PI) is promoted to support effectiveness over more commonly used teaching methods. Usually it is proposed for the university and upper secondary school. The research reports on the implementation of the PI approach in teaching subject Science and Technology (S&T) in the 4th grade…

This paper presents a pilot study of creative movement workshops that enriched the school life of fourth graders at a primary school in Slovenia during the closure of educational institutions due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The project involved a dancer who met with students via the Zoom platform for four months, preparing, leading, and facilitating…

Experiential learning was introduced to support a child's concept development towards evolution scientific literacy. This study examined the effect of an experiential learning model (The Mobile Natural Science Learning -- MNSL) on the knowledge of 4th grade primary school students in Slovenia, during natural science school lessons at the seashore…

The present research explores benefits of using young students' drawings in combination with written responses for gathering information about science concepts. Younger students are still very limited in their verbal expression and less biologically literate than older students. The aim was to determine primary school students' conceptions about…

Women's underrepresentation in mathematics-related careers continues to concern policymakers, economists, and educators. This study addressed the issue by examining data from two international databases, namely IEA's "Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study 2015," and the World Economic Forum's "Global Gender Gap…

Principals (policy makers) have debated the progress in U.S. student performance for a half century or more. Informing these conversations, survey agents have administered seven million psychometrically linked tests in math and reading in 160 waves to national probability samples of selected cohorts born between 1954 and 2007. This study is the…

The aim of our study was to determine whether summarizing skills could be developed in 4th grade primary school students. We designed a 5-month intervention programme as an experimental study, in which teachers trained students in the experimental group in their ability to summarize, which is one of the important strategies that enhance reading…

Social studies is a class students encounter in the fourth and fifth grades of primary school in Slovenia. It includes goals from the fields of geography, sociology, history, ethnology, psychology, economy, politics, ethics, aesthetics, and ecology. Among other didactic recommendations in the national curriculum for teaching, social studies…

This paper investigates the impact of national policies for improving teaching and the school learning environment (SLE) on student achievement. In each participating country (i.e., Belgium/Flanders, Cyprus, Germany, Greece, Ireland, and Slovenia), a sample of at least 50 schools was drawn and tests in mathematics and science were administered to…

Pierre M. Van Hiele created five levels of geometric thinking. We decided to identify the level of geometric thinking in the students in Slovenia, aged 9 to 11 years. The majority of students (60.7%) are at the transition between the zero (visual) level and the first (descriptive) level of geometric thinking. Nearly a third (31.7%) of students is…