Resumo

PETRUšEVSKI, Vladimir M.; STOJANOVSKA, Marina  e  ŠOPTRAJANOV, Bojan. "Modernization" of the Chemistry Education Process: Do People Still Perform Real Experiments?. Educ. quím [online]. 2009, vol.20, n.4, pp.466-470. ISSN 0187-893X.

During the last two decades, numerous attempts have been made to "modernize" science education, chemistry education in particular. Microscale experiments, such as projected experiments, have become favorites of many educators and instructors. Although these experiments might be useful for hands-on approach or for quick demonstrations in large lecture rooms,educators often overlook the shortcomings. Those whose wish is to "modernize"chemistry/ science education often use modern equipment that does not explain the science phenomena as well as the traditional experiment. Therefore, these microscale experiments sometimes distort the information gathered-information that is easily obtained by the macroscopic-or traditional-approach. The question arises: do we, occasionally, modernize just to be modern? This paper discusses two groups of examples: (1) those where the modern (in this case the microscale) approach is a step in the right direction and (2) examples where "modernization" appears to be a step backwards, like insisting on microscale experiments where they completely fail, or using projectors and movies instead of performing experiments in vivo.

Palavras-chave : chemistry; demonstrations; experiments; microscale; modernization; overhead.