LANGUAGE PRIOR KNOWLEDGE OF THE STUDENTS - FIRST GRADERS AS A BASIS FOR MASTERING THE CURRICULUM IN FIRST GRADE

Abstract

Since the introduction of the nine-year education in 2007 until today, attempts are made to follow the modern trends in education, as well as to raise the quality of teaching and learning. Curricula aimed at the goals have been prepared, trainings for the teaching staff have been conducted and a number of projects have been implemented to improve the quality of teaching and learning by the institutions of the system, international and domestic organizations. An Education Strategy for 2018 - 2025 has been prepared which sets out the key activities that need to be undertaken in the coming years to improve teaching and learning. Priorities include student-centered instruction, measuring learning outcomes in relation to outcomes (instead of focusing only on gaining knowledge) and introducing national assessment.

The concept of primary education, prepared in March 2021, is the basis for providing quality primary education, which expects the school to enable children to meet the demands of life in the present and the future, i.e, to teach students to study in further education and in life in general. The concept provides the essential precondition for achieving this goal - teaching to be oriented towards deep and meaningful learning based on critical thinking and logical reasoning.

With the National standards for primary education are defined the competencies that students should acquire at the end of primary education. The National standards are embedded in the curriculum, through the representation of the teaching subjects and extracurricular activities, and in the curricula, through the transfer of competencies into expected learning outcomes and, consequently, in assessment standards.

Curricula are developed on the basis of National competency-based standards.

The Macedonian language curriculum for the first grade offers the following topics / areas: 1. Listening and speaking; 2. Initial reading and writing; 3. Literature, expression and creation and 4. Media literacy and media culture.

In this paper, we will focus on the students' prior knowledge, measured in the PMS "Goce Delchev" - Stip and RPS Tri Cheshmi, who in the school year 2021/22 will be in the first grade and to give our view in achieving the expected results from the same