Rethinking Science in the Classroom: Colloquium at Educación UC addressed how modeling transforms scientific education

Science teaching should be a dynamic and critical process, and should not be understood as a set of static and immutable facts, established UC Education academic Yefrin Ariza.

In a new Colloquium on UC Education, the academic from the UC Faculty of Education Yefrin Ariza presented her study entitled “Model-oriented science teaching and the nature of science: implicit relationship or empirical coincidence?”. This research analyzes how model-based science teaching can influence the understanding of the Nature of Science (NoS) in secondary school students in Chile. Ariza highlighted the need to transform traditional teaching models so that students develop a critical and reflective vision of science.

The purpose of the study is to investigate whether teaching methods that use modeling impact the way students perceive science, helping them to see it as a dynamic and critical process rather than a set of static facts. This research responds to the “persistence of teaching methods that tend to generate rigid and uncritical views of scientific knowledge, affecting students’ ability to understand scientific processes and methods in depth,” said the academic.

The research included 320 students from Talca, Concepción, Valparaíso and Santiago, with a quasi-experimental design and a mixed methods approach. To encourage scientific reflection, a teaching sequence focused on modeling was developed, integrating metacognitive reflection activities, empirical characterization of phenomena and application of scientific models. Data collection techniques included questionnaires and focus groups, which allowed observing changes in students' conceptions before and after the educational intervention.

Results

The findings of the study show that classroom modeling contributes to a more informed and critical understanding of science in students. Significant changes were identified in students' perceptions of key topics such as creativity in science, observation, and scientific methodology. “From the results, we can say that students went from seeing science as a set of fixed steps to understanding it as a discipline where creativity and adaptability play an essential role,” explained Ariza.

The UC Education professor also stressed the importance of including spaces for meta-scientific reflection in the classroom, which are essential for delving deeper into certain areas of the NoS. These spaces help students understand the role of science in society and its link to culture, essential elements for a comprehensive scientific education.

Colloquia in UC Education

This activity is organized by the Faculty of Education through its Research Directorate, the Doctoral Program in Education and CEPPE UC. The objective of these colloquia is to share research results and generate an opportunity for dialogue and analysis based on academic production. The 2024 Colloquia cycle has been extended from May to December of this year.

Check below the established dates of the following colloquiums:

• November 20: Rosario Notary“Profiles of teaching practices in low-performing schools: A latent class analysis using classroom observation.”
• December 18: Susana Mendive, Solar Horace y Florence Gomez.  «Collaboration, Research and Practice for Educational Improvement (CIPME)».