Abstract

LANDAU, Leonor; RICCHI, Gastón  and  TORRES, Noemí. Solutions: Does experimentation contributes to meaningful learning?. Educ. quím [online]. 2014, vol.25, n.1, pp.21-29. ISSN 0187-893X.

We present a didactic strategy designed in order to investigate if the achievement of a simple laboratory practice, next to the daily reality of the pupil, might help to diminish the difficulties presented by pupils of a first university course of chemistry in the comprehension of the concepts associated with the topic solutions, like composition, density and concentration of a solution. Experimentation helped students differentiate between density and concentration and consistently solve problematic situations. It happens that some students consider a solution as a new substance. This deeply rooted idea that prevails even after experimentation in the laboratory is constituted as a real domain theory, because students have built a consistent reasoning between the observed macroscopic vision and the studied characteristics of substances. This theory of domain recognizes at least three implicit assumptions of epistemological, ontological and conceptual origin. The results of the research allow us to conclude that the achievement of meaningful learning requires not only practice in the laboratory, but a simultaneous work of training, experimentation and metacognition.

Keywords : density; solutions; experimentation; alternative conceptions; meaningful learning.

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