A scheme for the assessment of students’ explanation capacity in an STS problem. A case study on oral cavities

• Autor(a) principal: Franco-Mariscal, Antonio Joaquín
• Data de Publicação: 2016
• Outros Autores: Blanco-López, Ángel, España-Ramos, Enrique
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: spa
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: https://doi.org/10.34624/id.v8i1.3636

Real everyday problems are linked to the Science, Technology and Society (STS) approach and they are of interest for science education, since they identify relevant problem situations for citizens which can be transferred into the classroom. One such problem is the dental decay in adolescents. In order to address this problem in the classroom, we have designed a teaching sequence where students must answer question: ‘Why do teeth decay?’. This paper analyzes the results of a case study, conducted on a sample of fifteen 16 year-old students determined to perceive their ability to answer this question. A knowledge test was used for data collection before and after the intervention. A scheme to evaluate students’ abilities to explain scientific phenomena is proposed in this paper. It consists of four stages: (1) definition of a theoretical reference, (2) desired explanation of the phenomenon at the school level, (3) analysis of the responses of students, and (4) development of a set of categories of progress for the explanations. Some progress was evidenced in the students’ ability to explain why teeth decay, for instance, their recognition of sugar as an important factor in people’s diet. Initially, students showed difficulties to relate the aspects of the mechanism by which teeth decay, not referring in any way to how the active agent (acid) is formed. Students progressed significantly in their ability to explain the mechanism after the apllication of the teaching sequence, although some initial errors persisted.