PUBLICATION INFORMATION
TITLE OF PUBLICATION
TOWARD A SIGNIFICANT APPROACH TO SCIENTIFIC KNOWLEDGE: AN INTERDISCIPLINARY PROPOSAL FOR PRIMARY SCHOOL. (VERSO UN APPROCCIO SIGNIFICATIVO AL SAPERE
SCIENTIFICO:
UNA PROPOSTA INTERDISCIPLINARE PER LA SCUOLA PRIMARIA)
NAME OF AUTHOR(S)
Aldo BORSESE, Barbara MALLARINO, Ilaria REBELLA, Irene PARRACHINO
NAME OF PUBLISHER
CnS La Chimica nella Scuola
LANGUAGE OF PUBLICATION
Italian
PUBLICATION TYPOLOGY
Report
TARGET GROUP OF PUBLICATION
Researchers, Teachers
SIZE OF THE PUBLICATION
3 – 10 pages
DESCRIPTION OF CONTENTS
The authors of the publication, belong to a research group composed by experts in chemistry teaching and primary school teachers. They planned and put into practice some interdisciplinary teaching proposals for primary schools,
focused on the chemical process of dissolution, using the group's own educational materials.
The educational paths are all based on laboratory teaching: the pupils observe and describe, formulate hypotheses,
plan and test, store and interpret the data they get. The definition of some scientific terms, cooperatively made up by the
class, represent the conceptual synthesis of the whole work.
The work is composed by more steps.
During the first step, the group paid particular attention to the acquisition of lexical and conceptual requirements necessary for further work, arriving at the construction of a shared definition of "solid substance soluble in water" (i.e. "A solid substance is soluble in water, that dissolves in water, when ... no longer visible grains and the liquid is colorless transparent or colored transparent") until building, in later years, the concepts of conservation of mass, concentration and saturation.
In the second step, the acquired concepts were recovered and a deepening of the observed aspects was done ("The grains are not seen or are not there more? What can we do to determine this? How much salt can we dissolve in a glass of water? How can I do to produce a larger amount of solution with the same shade of color?") until arriving to the definition of “concentration” as ratio between non homogeneous quantities, by linking experiences carried out in different situations during all five years (measurements, decimals, fraction and percentage concept, intuitive concept of proportion).
Then, a conclusive discussion was carried out, aiming to remember what is a solution, as it is recognized, what solutions were prepared in the past and what features were identified.
It was followed by an individual production: "What determines the concentration of a solution?". The answers were shared and discussed.
Finally teachers proposed a task to verify the learning; the results were generally satisfactory: even children who had made mistakes, showed to have internalized many of the concepts discussed.
REVIEWER’S COMMENTS ON THE PUBLICATION
This proposal is very significant as first approach to solubility concept and solutions. The children will improve their logical competences and their skills in self-evaluation, comparing their points of view
with their classmates. They will also develop their linguistic and metacognitive abilities. The results obtained have
proved the formative value of the methodology we are suggesting. We believe that a such careful planning of
educational settings will stimulate and motivate students towards the development of cognitive autonomy.
NAME OF THE REVIEWING ORGANISATION
University of Genoa
Comments about this Publication
Your comments are welcome
Date: 2014.04.07
Posted by Sabine Jacquemin (Belgium)
Message: This publication describes the adoption of an educational path for primary school students based on laboratory teaching where the pupils can observe, describe, formulate hypothesis and interpret the data they get.
This educational method focuses on the improvement of pupils’ logical competences and skills’ self-evaluation, linguistic and meta-cognitive abilities. For example the first step, based on the definition of solubility, allows the students to build up operational sequences through texts and diagrams.
The publication also identifies some barriers pupils can come across during their learning: in particular, there is a distinction between two types of learners. The first type includes pupils with high potentials that from their very early age can manage microscopic structures while the second type includes those that only memorise notions. The method focuses on the risk that pupils might incur at the secondary school when they lack the necessary basis upon which they can build their knowledge of the experimental science.
This publication is very useful to teachers as it describes a new methodology aimed at developing transversal competencies of pupils that learn this way not only to perform experiments out of the knowledge they acquired but also reflect upon the modality to perform them.
