Implementation of Contemporary Teaching Methodology Knowledge in Order to Achieve Outcomes in Croatian Language Teaching in Primary Education

Abstract

The implementation of modern methodological knowledge implies respect for the algorithm of the initial science in the choice of teaching content and a scientifically determined choice of teaching procedures that most effectively enable the achievement of outcomes provided by the curriculum. Methodological articulation should be such that students are active participants in the teaching process, i.e. that they are involved in the language activities of listening, speaking, reading and writing. The microstructured model of teaching the Croatian language comprises a motivational introduction, language teaching template, lesson-content announcement, introduction to language occurrences in context, practice, repetition, evaluation of student’ achievement and a sequence for global word memorization.The choice of the methodological system in which the teaching model will be microstructured depends on the teacher’s assessment of what is the optimal correlation between teachers, pupils, content and the methodological template in order to achieve the goal/learning outcomes. This paper describes the correlation between these factors with examples of usual methodological systems in the teaching of the Croatian language. Fourth-year students of the Faculty of Teacher Education of the University of Zagreb (N = 39) observed the teaching process during 70 classes of Croatian language teaching. The aim was to investigate whether teachers implement modern methodological knowledge in the teaching process. The results indicate that 20% of the observed articulations of teaching classes deviate from the methodologically based structure; linguistic-methodological templates (texts intended for teaching language items) are appropriate, but 30% of teachers do not use the provided linguistic methodological templates for teaching a language item. It was further noticed that the most common methodological system is communication (94.9%), however, further analysis shows that 89% of students are involved in language production, mostly in the language activity of speaking.The results of the work contribute to the scientific foundation of the methodological organization and articulation of the teaching process in the subject Croatian language in primary education.