Children's and students' independent work in the sphere of discovering and understanding the world and in science and social studies teaching

Studies worldwide suggest that one of the key problems in education is the training of students to independently select, combine and coordinate the use of different learning strategies in an effective manner. In order for the individual to be able to adapt learning strategies to the learning context, he or she must first master them, which requires the creation of conditions that enable children and students to independently practice certain academic skills in accordance with their experience, i.e. their previously acquired skills, and the nature of the learning content. This paper presents the results of a study which sought to examine the presence prevalence, quality and character of independent work among children in the 5 to 10 age range in the sphere of discovering and understanding the world and in science and social studies teaching. A descriptive method using the research technique of systematic observation was employed. The results suggest that there is a lack of activities that can adequately support the training of children and students for independent work and learning, that activities characterized by a higher degree of autonomy decline with children's and students' age, and that the character of children's and students' independent learning activities is not appropriate to the nature of the learning content.