Andreja Spernjak

University of Maribor | UM · Department of Biology

This paper focuses on the impact of out-of-school and in-school use of digital technologies on the reading and information literacy skills of 15-year-old Slovenian students who participated in the PISA 2018 study. For our study, we selected PISA 2018 variables related to the use of digital technologies in school or outside school. The sample (N = 2...

Slovensko: V zadnjem desetletju smo priča velikim tehnološkim, družbenim in socialnim spremembam. Razlike med posamezniki v družbi so vse večje in kapitalizem počasi, a vztrajno spreminja človeške vrednote. Otroci so najbolj ranljivi deležniki te družbe, zato jim je potrebno zagotoviti kvalitetno vzgojo in izobraževanje. Vloga predmetnega učitelja...

Information and Communication Technology (ICT) is a commonly used concept in schools, implemented in laboratory work in the form of various digital devices. We evaluated the ICT implementation in cardiovascular physiology in Slovenian primary school education. Surprisingly, we showed a relatively low acceptance rate in biology classes: only 42.8 %...

Background The microbiology should be a part of curricula; especially after epidemic COVID-19. Purpose The study reports the level of knowledge and opinions of Slovenian citizens about microorganisms. Sample The target population of the online survey was Slovenian citizens older than 14 years. Design and methods We collected 405 complete surveys...

Health is coconsidered as goodness; therefore, schools should be places where healthy habits, along with evidence-based medical knowledge and practices, are taught and practised. The key persons in education are teachers, so their opinions and worldviews should not be neglected. The objective of this work was to identify opinions about health educa...

In Slovenia, as in many other countries, interest in seeking careers in science, technology and engineering-related disciplines is low, which can be recognized as a problem. The influence of general interest in biology, the content, and teaching of Biology in 9-year basic school (age 14 -15) and general upper-secondary schools (age 15 – 18) on the...

IzvlečekNamen: V članku obravnavamo razvoj in predstavljamo predlog meril in kazalcev informacijske pismenosti na ravni srednješolskega izobraževanja.Metodologija/pristop: V Sloveniji nimamo dokumenta, ki bi za srednje šole opredeljeval merila in kazalce informacijske pismenosti ter pričakovana znanja in veščine po zahtevnostnih stopnjah. Zato smo...

The shortage of qualified STEM teachers and researchers in these fields can be recognized as an existing and forthcoming problem. The aim of the present study was to explore the influence of the content of STEM subjects Biology, Chemistry, Informatics, Mathematics, Physics, and Technics and Technology and corresponding classroom experiences, as per...

This paper reports on the contribution to biological knowledge of three different laboratory technologies and also endeavours to discover which technology students prefer the most. To examine differences in knowledge gained and learners’ preferences for different technologies in biology laboratory work, we prepared three variants (triplets) of thre...

This article describes the results of a study that investigated the use of the dissection of organs in anatomy and physiology classes in Slovenian lower and upper secondary schools. Based on a sample of 485 questionnaires collected from Slovenian lower and upper secondary school students, we can conclude that dissection of mammalian organs during t...

In education is very important, how to represent the biological problem to be more educational and how teach in classroom for everyday life. For the case study was used biology laboratory exercise Effect of Energy Drinks on Heart Rate. Out of the students’ discussion, we can conclude that the topic of the impact of energy drinks on the functioning...

Biology laboratory work can be performed in various ways, even using information and communication technologies (ICT). Whether a teacher incorporates it into laboratory work is related to different factors, but educators can influence students’ beliefs about the value of ICT through their pedagogical practice. In our study, student teachers of biol...

In everyday teaching practice great helping to the clearness and visualization of the content are presentations. Two decades ago, the blackboard notes were replaced with traditional slides and overhead projector. With the availability of computer hardware and software are traditional slides converted to electronic slides. In our area the most frequ...

Syllabi in the science subjects, biology, chemistry and physics at lower and general upper secondary school are compared in the light of their underlying philosophies, goals, objectives and recognized importance in science teaching. Even though all syllabi were prepared within the same framework, great differences among syllabi concerning practical...

In science teaching, laboratory work is recognized as one of the cornerstones, where students gain useful knowledge for everyday life. The article presents the results of the biology laboratory exercise, ˝Effect of Chocolate and Energy Drinks on Heart Rate˝. Measuring the heart rate in the usual way is not as educationally effective as learning wit...

In the classroom, computers can be used for the improvement of teaching and conceptual learning. Computer-supported real and virtual laboratory are recognized as tools which enhance the acquisition of both concepts and connections among them. According to our research, Slovenian Biology teachers have adopted the computers as typewriter, a source of...

In Science teaching laboratory work is recognized as one of the cornerstones. In school science laboratory work computers can be used as computer supported laboratory (real) and as virtual laboratory. In the first case “real” laboratories involve bench top experiments utilizing data acquisition systems while “virtual” laboratory entails interactive...

In the 2008 summer school nature camp, a research study was conducted on the popularity Of three different styles of biological laboratory work in elementary schools. The research study included 198 randomly chosen pupils from the fifth to ninth grades from the northeast region of Slovenia. Based on the analysis of answers, we concluded that irresp...

Abstract European pit-building antlions (Euroleon nostras/ Geoffroy in Fourcroy/) detect their prey by sensing the vibrations that prey generate during locomotory activity. The behavioural reactions and some of the physical properties of substrate vibrations in sand are measured to observe signal transmission through the substrate. The frequency ra...

Antlion larvae build inverted conical pits on the sand surface to capture their prey. This review examines the role of the pits, sand particle size and transmission of vibratory signals in prey capture behaviour of Euroleon nostras. First the effect of the pits on the prey escape-time and on the number of escaped ants is discussed. Then the role of...

The larvae of the antlion Euroleon nostras are pit-builders, constructing pitfall traps in loose sand. The number of pits and the pit diameter are recorded when larvae are kept in substrates with different particle sizes. The most convenient pit-building sand fractions are two fractions with fine sand (≤ 0.23 mm; 0.23–0.54 mm). The largest pits are...