Like many other areas, the educational system is challenging during the time of pandemic of the coronavirus. In the first half of the 2020 year, many schools had online lessons. The same situation was in Croatia, where we had online teaching from March to May in all elementary schools. Thus, the educational system started with fast-changing in terms of online teaching and learning methods. Distance learning has brought many families into specific situations because the help is normally provided to students by the teacher; in this situation, the parent had to do it. Because of that, parents were in a situation where they had to work online or “in vivo” and help their children learn new content. This was especially difficult for parents with a slightly lower level of education, parents who spent much time away from home at work, and especially for parents whose livelihoods called into question their lives, so in addition to organisational, some other socio-economic and emotional difficulties. Thus, this paper aims to research parents’ attitudes about distance learning and their role in these situations during the school year 2020/2021. As we expected, teachers wanted more cooperation with parents and parents wanted more understanding from teachers and not so many exercises in a short time.

The teacher plays a central role in every education system. In addition to imparting knowledge and perfecting students’ skills, the teacher is also a role model on a socio-emotional, moral and speech level. However, its role has changed throughout history and depended on culture and lifestyle. Today, the education system around the world is facing a major test, and thus the role of the teacher as the central person of this process is being tested. Namely, the pandemic caused by the coronavirus switched teaching to the online form in 2020, to which some countries were less and some more ready. In the Republic of Croatia, distance learning was performed for three months in the first half of the year, and in the second half of the year, there are three models of teaching: distance, live and a combination of these two models. Given the experience of distance learning, on the one hand, there was less activity of students in completing tasks, poor understanding of the content of the material, the high workload of parents, but also many inconsistencies of teachers who in a concise time had to transfer their work entirely online (without prior education). On the other hand, it has been observed how much both students and parents are beginning to understand the importance of the teacher figure in the learning and teaching process and how difficult it is to replace teachers’ living word with any form of online teaching. That is why this paper aims to examine teachers’ attitudes about experiences with distance learning, and comparative analysis to determine the most common difficulties, challenges, and successes of this form of teaching by comparing it with classroom teaching. It is expected that the changes brought by distance learning will accelerate the digitalisation of the educational process, but also increase the understanding of the critical role of teachers as the centre of the educational process.

When starting school pupils begin to adopt the standard Croatian language (non dominant L2), which in some regions differs from the native idioms (dominant L1). In this situation the interlanguage field is created and most students become vertically plurilingual, i.e. the interweaving of different language codes is ref lected in monolingual school practice.In this research the greatest attention has been paid to the cognitivelinguistic para digm and the constructivist theory, within which the stimulus theory and error theory have proven to be an extremely purposeful part of the learning process in the early lan guage development. The aim was to examine the purposefulness of the application of the modern learning theories on the development of communicative competence of younger primary school pupils. The research results have confirmed that communicative compe tence can be successfully developed, among other, by taking advantage of errors as a stim ulus for further learning. Only in such a situation the interlanguage field in monolingual Croatian language practice should be treated as a positive and not a negative linguistic phenomenon.

The fundamental goal of Croatian language teaching in primary school is to develop the language and communicative competence, i.e. to develop functional literacy (National Curriculum, 2006). Precisely for this reason, Croatian language teaching should encourage the development of literacy in an interesting and creative manner. Creativity is a fundamental human potential that can be enhanced by stimulating creative thinking systematically throughout the educational process and at all ages. If it is to be achieved in a language class, creativity has to be encouraged through a teaching accompanied not only by interesting manners and sources but also by an unconventional and original approach that will require the pupil to be open, curious and critical. This is why the aim of this study is to investigate the influence of language games, as a creative form of teaching, on the development of literacy in Croatian language class. Participants in the research were third and fourth grade pupils (N = 140), divided into two groups, the control and the experimental group. The experimental group was presented with a class consisting of three language games, the aim of which was to stimulate literacy. The results of both groups were compared, as well as the pupils’ attitude towards Croatian language and school in general. The results showed that the participants like Croatian language, but they dislike school in general and that in Croatian language class games are played only sometimes though everybody likes playing because it makes learning more interesting. Girls had a more positive attitude towards Croatian language content than boys, while third grade pupils had a more positive attitude than fourth grade pupils. Pupils in the experimental group showed a better attitude towards Croatian language as a school subject as well as better results in the tests of knowledge. The results of the experimental group prove that it is important to use more language games, as a creative tool of teaching literacy, as often as possible in Croatian language class.Key words: creative thinking; early learning of Croatian language; functional literacy; language games.---SažetakTemeljni je cilj nastave Hrvatskoga jezika u osnovnoj školi razvoj jezično-komunikacijske kompetencije, odnosno razvoj funkcionalne pismenosti (NPiP, 2006). Upravo bi zato nastava Hrvatskoga jezika trebala na zanimljiv i kreativan način poticati razvoj pismenosti. Kreativnost je temeljni ljudski potencijal koji se sustavnim poticanjem kreativnoga mišljenja u svim dijelovima obrazovnoga procesa i u svakoj razvojnoj dobi može unaprijediti. Da bi se kreativnost u nastavi jezika ostvarila, potrebno ju je poticati koristeći se zanimljivim načinima i izvorima poučavanja, ali i činiti to na nekonvencionalan i originalan način koji će od učenika zahtijevati otvorenost, radoznalost i kritičko promišljanje. Upravo je zato cilj ovoga rada bio ispitati utjecaj provedbe jezičnih igara u nastavi Hrvatskoga jezika, kao kreativnoga oblika poučavanja, na razvoj pismenosti. U istraživanju su sudjelovali učenici trećega i četvrtoga razreda (N = 140) koji su bii podijeljeni na kontrolnu i eksperimentalnu skupinu. Eksperimentalnoj skupini prezentiran je jedan nastavni sat u kojemu su se provele tri jezične igre s ciljem kreativnoga poticanja pismenosti. Rezultati obiju skupina ispitanika uspoređeni su, kao i stavovi prema Hrvatskome jeziku i školi općenito. Pokazalo se da ispitanici vole Hrvatski jezik, ali ne vole školu, da u nastavi Hrvatskoga jezika igre provode tek ponekad, ali se zato svi u nastavi vole igrati jer im je tako nastava zanimljivija. Pokazalo se da djevojčice i učenici trećeg razreda imaju pozitivnije stavove prema sadržajima Hrvatskoga jezika od dječaka i učenika četvrtog razreda. Pokazalo se jednako tako da učenici iz eksperimentalne skupine imaju pozitivniji stav prema Hrvatskome jeziku kao nastavnome predmetu i da pokazuju bolje rezultate u znanju. Bolji rezultati eksperimentalne skupine pokazuju da se u nastavi Hrvatskoga jezika važno što više i što češće koristiti jezičnim igrama kao jednim od kreativnih načina poučavanja pismenosti.Ključne riječi: funkcionalna pismenost; jezične igre; kreativno mišljenje; rano učenje hrvatskoga jezika.

The teacher plays the central role in the educational process. In Croatian language teaching, the teacher represents a role model for his or her students in both speaking and writing. This is why it is very important to encourage teachers in language and language expression classes to stimulate and develop the creative thinking of their students by promoting new and interesting ways of finding different solutions to various problems. The creative teaching of literacy involves the use of different methods and techniques that teach students how to solve the posed problems in a creative manner (Hunt & Quaranta, 2014). Studies (Aladrović Slovaček, 2012) have shown that integration and correlation in Croatian language teaching are insufficiently used and that the level of descriptive knowledge is higher than the level of procedural knowledge. Therefore, the aim of this study is to examine the techniques and methods used in Croatian language classes in lower grades of primary school by teachers who aim to encourage the development of creative thinking in literacy teaching. Fifty (N = 50) teachers, who differ in age, years of service and attitude toward working in school, will participate in the research. It is expected that in teaching literacy, teachers use the techniques and methods that stimulate the development of creative thinking only sometimes and that these teachers perceive themselves as creative. It is also expected that younger teachers are more creative, while teachers who are more content use methods and techniques of creative thinking more frequently. Key words: creative thinking; Croatian language teaching; literacy; teacher; teachers’ attitudes.---SažetakUčitelj je središnja osoba odgojno-obrazovnoga procesa. U nastavi Hrvatskoga jezika učitelj je i pisani i govorni model svojim učenicima. Upravo je zato jako važno poticati učitelje da u nastavi jezika i jezičnoga izražavanja potiču i razvijaju kreativno mišljenje svojih učenika, osobito potičući traženje različitih rješenja problema na nove i zanimljive načine. Kreativno poučavanje pismenosti uključuje upotrebu različitih metoda i tehnika koje će učenike naučiti da na kreativan način rješavaju postavljene probleme (Hunt i Quaranta, 2014). Istraživanje (Aladrović Slovaček, 2012) pokazuje da su integracija i korelacija u nastavi Hrvatskoga jezika nedovoljno iskorištene te da je deklarativno znanje učenika veće od proceduralnoga. Stoga je cilj ovoga rada ispitati stavove učitelja o poticanju razvoja kreativnoga mišljenja u poučavanju pismenosti u mlađim razredima osnovne škole. U istraživanju je sudjelovalo četrdeset (N = 40) učitelja iz desetak osnovnih škola, različite dobi, različitih godina radnoga staža i različitog zadovoljstva radom u školi. Postavljene su hipoteze potvrđene jer učitelji samo ponekad rabe tehnike i metode koje potiču razvoj kreativnoga mišljenja u poučavanju pismenosti, ali sami sebe doživljavaju kreativnima. Pokazalo se također da su mlađi učitelji kreativniji, a zadovoljniji učitelji češće rabe metode i tehnike kreativnoga mišljenja.Ključne riječi: kreativno mišljenje; nastava Hrvatskoga jezika; pismenost; učitelj; stavovi učitelja.