The experimentation in chemical education: An exploratory study on pre-service chemistry teachers' perceptions

Abstract

The experimentation has been considered as a central tool and specific for Teaching of Chemistry while the studies of ways it is understood and used in the classroom have been gaining importance. The objective of this work was to make an initial survey of the perceptions of pre-service teachers on pedagogical function of experimentation. For this, questionnaires and interviews were implemented according to a qualitative and exploratory perspective research. The results suggest that although there is a confirmatory perception of experimentation, which its objective is to confirm previously addressed theories, in pre-service teachers who were at the beginning of course, a critical and investigative perspective characterized the majority of pre-service teachers’ perception who were in later stages of course, suggesting that curricular activities may be favoring this process of change. This perspective of experimentation was based on ideas categorized in motivation, quotidian and minds-on, showing a multiple and mixed character of this teacher’s knowledge. The profile of perceptions about investigative experimentation suggests that a research based on follow-up of pre-service teachers’ pedagogical practice is promising, both to explore absent aspects in the survey, and to advance in facing the difficulties encountered during the implementation of experiments.