Abstract

MARTINS, Iva; BAPTISTA, Mónica  and  ARROIO, Agnaldo. Students’ cognitive structures about the copper cycle. Educ. quím [online]. 2021, vol.32, n.4, pp.34-44.  Epub Feb 28, 2022. ISSN 0187-893X.  https://doi.org/10.22201/fq.18708404e.2021.5.78699.

The copper cycle is one of the experimental activities implemented in Chemistry courses and allows students to explore concepts related to the principle of mass conservation and chemical reactions. Therefore, it is important to understand students’ preconceptions and initial difficulties in order to implement teaching-learning strategies that allow students to overcome them. In this sense, it was aimed to assess the development of students’ cognitive structures (CS), regarding the copper cycle, after a sequence of inquiry-based learning (IBL) lessons. The participants were 43 students from a secondary Portuguese school, who attended the 12th grade. The assessment of students’ CS was carried out by applying a Word Association Test (WAT), in a pretest-posttest design. Additionally, students were asked to write sentences that included the associated words. The data obtained from the WAT were used to construct the maps of students’ CS, and this allowed the characterization of students’ CS in two different moments, and the evaluation of their development concerning the copper cycle. This study illustrates the use of a WAT as a suitable instrument to elucidate about students’ CS and its appropriateness to investigate students’ conceptions, difficulties and learning achievements.

Keywords : Cognitive Structures; Science Education; Chemistry Education; Word Association Test; Inquiry-based Learning.

        · abstract in Spanish     · text in English     · English ( pdf )