María Álvarez Lires Azucena Arias Correa
lires@uvigo.es azucena@uvigo.es
Uxío Pérez Rodríguez J. Francisco Serrallé Marzoa uxio.perez@uvigo.es jfserralle@uvigo.es
Facultade de Ciencias da Educación e do Deporte, Universidade de Vigo
This paper presents a research-innovation experience developed in Experimental Sciences (ES) in Second Degree Course in Tea-cher Training in Early Childhood Education. This training activity was aimed at developing scientific competences by introducing the History of Science and Technology (HST). To this end, we analyzed physical and virtual productions of the students, concerning to previous conceptions about:
The nature of science Teaching methodologies Collaborative blended learning
Grade students shall understand the principles and the fundamental laws of the ES, they shall know the school curriculum, they shall develop and evaluate contents through didactic resources and they shall acquire competences to teach. Science Education (SE) shall also contribute to learn to manage the classroom, to impulse the innovation, to take up the stance in regard to the social problems and to build relationships with institutions; to interpret phenomena, to ask and search data; to organize the classroom for sharing experiences, to build knowledge and to interpret models increasingly complex through actions and to stop thinking in “themes” (Pujol, 2008). It must be taught to think, to speak, to do, to manage by oneself and to work together (Pujol, 2007), because Sciences is a task that is evaluated, it is made in group and it must be able to report (Izquierdo, 2007).
HST has been introduced to contribute to acquire knowledge, to motivate students, to show scientific-humanistic aspects, to develop scientific competences and to reduce school failure (Jiménez-Aleixandre, 1996; Izquierdo, 1997: Quintanilla et al., 2005;
Pérez-Rodriguez et al., 2009).
a) Through KPSI questionnaires and debates it was found that science was seen as a set of laws, theories and discoveries that lead to the truth by “the scientific method”. This showed that there were a declarative knowledge of the structure and functions of a cell, atom model, remarkable scientific, and Marie Curie, but their descriptions showed ignorance on these issues and current topics.
Only 17% of students had seen “chemical materials” or “preparations under the microscope”. They did not relate their learning with the curriculum of ES, their experience of workgroups was to “divide and then unite pieces”, their knowledge of HST was limited to “bits of biographies of scientists”; the relations between STS and Gender were absent. Their teaching resources were textbooks and the Internet.
b) The module Chemistry of Life was designed in agreement with Pujol (2008) who affirms that the choice of a model of school science involves deciding the models to consider in the initial formation of teachers: living creatures, energy, matter/chemical chan-ge and earth/universe.
In the absence of teaching materials HST (Alvarez-Lires, 1999), we chose the series The Cell, which includes three historic-scien-tists videos, from the BBC-Scotland (2009): The Chemistry of Life, The Hidden Kingdom and The Spark of Life.
c) Preconceptions about Sciences and its teaching were detected (Arias-Correa et al., 2011), through exploration activities, lack of key competences and professional skills were found. It was also found that only 10% of students had studied higher certificate in Sciences. Activities of introduction and structuring were designed (Jorba and Sanmartí, 1996).
d) Learning objectives and evaluation criteria were communicated.
e) The first video was analyzed and there was a field trip to a wetland to collect puddle water, the samples were examined with optical and digital microscopes, whose management they learned with the help of on-line manuals. Google Earth was also used.
The second video was analyzed. Physical and virtual productions were analyzed.
The students, accustomed to the repetitive pattern, had to face tasks by themselves and they reacted with embarrassment or rejec-tion. Cognitive and affective conflict was provoked in order to build knowledge and they were informed about that.
To convince them that the construction of learning in action is more useful than the repetitive learning and to break the identifica-tion of evaluaidentifica-tion with exams and grades, it is necessary that the teachers solve doubts, redirect processes and debate pertinent quesidentifica-tions to arise throughout the action.
A systematic reality was revealed: the scientific competences interact with others and it is necessary knowing the starting point of the students and influencing in very diverse aspects in order to develop them.
Some conceptions have changed and others have persisted. In the analysis of their productions (50%) it has been detected that they are more aware of what they are learning, what it is left to learn and their difficulties to apply the learnt things.
They are still not aware of the need to use scientific models, but the need to “interpret phenomena” appears. That interpretation started through ad hoc activities.
The results show that it is possible to develop teaching skills and scientific competences demanded by degree studies. To achieve this, it is necessary to recapitulate what has been learned, assess strengths and weaknesses, propose restructuring activities and implemen-tation as well as designing and evaluating tasks autonomously. SE and HST can and shall contribute to this.