Abstract:
The ability to identify and answer researchable questions that can be solved through experimental design is considered a competence to be developed while learning natural sciences; and getting students to attain this goal necessarily implies that teachers have previously perfected this competence. However, there is little research on how developed this ability is among teachers, and virtually none with the participation of primary school teachers. This paper presents a sequence of didactic activities in three phases with the aim of inquiring about this skill, of promoting the ability to identify, among a series of generic researchable questions, those that, indeed, could be solved through a simple experimental design and, then, of formulating a suitable experiment, with measurable and controlled variables, to answer them. This sequence was successfully implemented with a group of 41 elementary school teachers.
Keywords:
Science education; Elementary school; Researchable questions; Nature of science; Experimental design