The Development and Application of Strategies using Fairy Tales in Elementary School Science Instruction

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the development and application of strategies using fairy tales in elementary school science. For this study, many fairy tales were searched in terms of various characteristics and educational value of the tales. Five fairy tales were selected and reconstructed to suit the 'mirrors and lenses' unit of 5th graders' school science, and teaching strategies using the fairy tales were developed to be used in six lessons. To investigate the effects of instruction using fairy tales, pre/post tests for scientific attitude were administered. To analyze students' perception of their classes, a simple survey was administered through questionnaires. We found from this study that the students related the fairy tales with their own experiences and took an active part in the class that used them. Also, instruction using fairy tales had positive effects on their scientific attitude. Many students said that the science classes were interesting, and the method using fairy tales encouraged students to study hard as well as helped them to understand the context. It was concluded that instruction using fairy tales was an effective method in terms of enhancing learning motivation, encouraging more inquiries, more opportunities to apply the scientific concept, and more positive scientific attitude. We discussed the strategies using fairy tales for implementation in elementary science classes as well.