Problem solving at secondary school level: a cognitive and social change

This paper reports our first studies on problem solving at secondary school level, with low performance students, under the framework of the integration of two meanings of the constructivist conception: a) the construction of meaning and content’s role, and b) the integration of individual and socia...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Consuelo Escudero, Sonia González de Flores
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul 1996-08-01
Series:Investigações em Ensino de Ciências
Subjects:
Online Access:http://www.if.ufrgs.br/ienci/artigos/Artigo_ID15/v1_n2_a4.pdf
Description
Summary:This paper reports our first studies on problem solving at secondary school level, with low performance students, under the framework of the integration of two meanings of the constructivist conception: a) the construction of meaning and content’s role, and b) the integration of individual and social aspects. In classroom problem solving in 3rd year (15 years old) just very elementary signs of operationalism were observed; the use of formulae appeared only when students had a certain level of content mastery. The limited meaning students assign to the equality sign and its symbolical representation constitutes another important nucleus of difficulty detected in this research. This analysis and its interpretation are used for some educational suggestions.
ISSN:1518-8795