Abstract

SUART, Rita de Cássia  and  MARCONDES, Maria Eunice Ribeiro. The cognitive skills expressed in investigative laboratory work in the secondary chemistry education. Ciênc. cogn. [online]. 2009, vol.14, n.1, pp. 50-74. ISSN 1806-5821.

Inquiry experiments are one of the strategies which allow more active participation in the learning process. So, if the students are involved in steps as: data collection, analysis and discussion, they will be able to formulate hypothesis and to propose solutions to the problem, developing logical reasoning and cognitive skills important to the construction of chemical knowledge and for citizenship. This work investigated the cognitive skills expressed by high school students in an inquiry chemistry experimental activity. Students should investigate the factors that would affect the boiling point of a material. The classes were recorded on audio and videotape and the reports and discourse of students were analyzed qualitatively using categories of analysis based on the cognitive skills. The analysis shows the difficulties of the students to understand the relationship between time and temperature. Some groups proposed the time as the object of study instead of the temperature. Also, the results show great involvement of the students in the activity and their answers reveal higher order cognitive skills, such as development of hypothesis; however, they also give answers that was classified as lower order cognitive skills, perhaps, because the activity was unknown by students and it requires greater cognitive effort in order to deal with some steps

Keywords : experimental; chemistry teaching; cognitive skills.

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