ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION OF YOUNGER SCHOOL CHILDREN IN OUT-OF-LESSON ACTIVITIES IN CONDITIONS OF MIXED LEARNING

Abstract

Annotation. Introduction. Environmental education of primary schoolchildren in extracurricular activities in a blended learning environment will be effective provided that teachers realize its goals, content, resources and the ability to support this process by parents - full-fledged participants in modern education.The aim of the study is to compare the attitude of teachers and parents of primary schoolchildren to the extracurricular activities of children in distance learning and to determine ways to solve the problem of selecting the content, means and forms of organizing extracurricular activities aimed at the implementation of environmental education in a blended learning environment. The object of the research is the process of environmental education of primary schoolchildren in extracurricular activities in a blended learning environment. The subject of the research is the content, means and forms of organization of environmental education of primary schoolchildren in extracurricular activities.Materials and methods. The study used an anonymous questionnaire survey (N = 10) of teachers and parents (N = 292) of students in grades 1-4 who were included in the organization of extracurricular activities of younger schoolchildren on environmental education in a blended learning environment. The respondents from the Chelyabinsk, Tyumen and Sverdlovsk regions took part in the questionnaire procedure.Research results. Discrepancies were revealed in the attitude of teachers and parents of students in grades 1-4 to blended learning: 30% of teachers and 3.7% of parents have a positive attitude towards it. Parents (65.4%) identified the decline in the quality of knowledge of primary schoolchildren as the main argument for their negative attitude to the blended learning format. The survey made it possible to determine the opinion of teachers and parents about the reasons for the decline in the quality of knowledge of primary schoolchildren and their own difficulties in the transition to blended learning in extracurricular activities. Teachers noted that it is difficult for children to maintain attention throughout the entire distance lesson; their skills of independent work are poorly formed. At the same time, they believe that younger students are able to conduct independent natural-science observations and experiments under the supervision of their parents. It is most difficult for parents in blended learning to control the process of observation in nature (92.5%), reports-reflections on the results of observations in nature (96.2%), experiments and experiments (87% of respondents).Discussion and conclusion. The revealed discrepancies in the attitude of teachers and parents to blended learning made it possible to select the content of the course of extracurricular activities "Practical ecology for younger students", structure and present verbal and digital resources, systematize and describe the forms of organization of environmental education of younger students in extracurricular activities.