Educação STEM no desenvolvimento das estruturas cognitivas acerca das transformações de energia: Um estudo com alunos do 9.º ano

Iva Martins; Mónica Baptista; Inês Tomé

doi:10.21814/rpe.25599

Authors

Iva Martins Universidade de Lisboa Instituto de Educação https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1485-2760
Mónica Baptista Instituto de Educação da Universidade de Lisboa https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1609-5764
Inês Tomé Externato de Penafirme https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5283-9738

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.21814/rpe.25599

Keywords:

Cognitive structures, Science education, STEM education, Word association test (WAT), Energy transformations

Abstract

The concept of energy, although a central concept in Science teaching, is an abstract concept, whose understanding poses many challenges and difficulties to students. Likewise, the phenomena associated with this concept, namely energy transformations, are particularly difficult for most students. Thus, this study aimed to know the effect of a STEM activity (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics), for the teaching, in a formal context, of the topic “Energy Transformations”, in the cognitive structures of 31 students attending the 9th grade. The study followed a pre-test and post-test design, with a single group. Data collection was performed through a word association test (WAT), with six stimulus words, before and after the activity. The results obtained allowed the construction of tables of frequencies and maps of the cognitive structures of the students in the two distinct moments. In addition, and as a way of revealing the nature of the word associations made by the students, they were asked to write sentences with the associated words. The analysis of the results was performed considering the associations most frequently made by the students (i.e., based on the type and frequencies of the response words) and their nature (i.e., based on the sentences written by the students). Considering the results and their analysis, it is possible to conclude that there was an evolution of the cognitive structures of the students, which is indicative that their involvement in the STEM activity promoted the construction of a more in-depth knowledge about the contents in question.

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Author Biographies

Iva Martins, Universidade de Lisboa Instituto de Educação

Iva Martins é Doutora em Bioquímica pela Faculdade de Ciências da Universidade de Lisboa e Mestre em Ensino da Física e da Química para o 3.º Ciclo e Ensino Secundário pelo Instituto de Educação da Universidade de Lisboa (IE-ULisboa). Desempenha funções de Investigadora Doutorada e docente no Curso de Mestrado em Ensino da Física e da Química no IE-ULisboa. As suas áreas de interesse são: Educação STEM, inquiry, PCK e desenvolvimento profissional dos professores de ciências.

Mónica Baptista, Instituto de Educação da Universidade de Lisboa

Mónica Baptista é Doutora em Educação - Didática das Ciências pela Universidade de Lisboa. É Subdiretora e Professora Associada no IE-ULisboa. É representante dos países do mediterrâneo no IOSTE. Supervisiona trabalhos de mestrado e de doutoramento, estando envolvida na coordenação do Mestrado em Ensino de Física e Química. Coordena o projeto de investigação GoSTEM, financiado pela Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia e participa em vários projetos Europeus (e.g., Hands-on-Remote, KeySTEM, LOOP). As suas áreas de interesse Educação STEM, inquiry, lesson study e desenvolvimento profissional dos professores de ciências.

Inês Tomé, Externato de Penafirme

Inês Tomé é Licenciada em Ensino de Físico-Química, pela Faculdade de Ciências da Universidade de Lisboa e Mestre em Ensino na área de Didática das Ciências, pelo IE-ULisboa. Leciona a disciplina de Físico-Química no Externato de Penafirme desde 2005, desempenhando a função de diretora de turma desde 2006.

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