Inorganic functions and digestion

a didactic proposal built on the proposal of meaningful learning and cooperative learning

Abstract

The teaching-learning process of Chemistry in High School has been
challenging for both teacher and student. The use of new methodologies, such as
didactic material contextualized with the students’ lives, shows itself as an alternative
to the traditional method of teaching, assisting the transposition between the
chemical concepts and the everyday life of the students. The present research aims to
prove if the usage of a Potentially Meaningful Teaching Unit (UEPS in Portuguese),
contextualized with the digestion related theme, which was organized in a way to
attend the proposal of the Meaningful Learning, created by David Ausubel, and of
the Cooperative Learning, developed by the brothers David Johnson and Roger
Johnson, promote the learning of the inorganic functions’ content in a more
meaningful way for the students. To attend such goal, the research is described as of
qualitative nature, using for the data gathering pre and post intervention
questionnaires and the production of charts by the students. UEPS was applied in a class with 25 students of the junior High School in a public school of the town of
Panambi/RS for 10 arranged meetings. The analyses of the collected data allowed the
pointing out of the feasibility of the methodological proposal as signs for a
Meaningful Learning, evidenced by the great participation of the students during
lectures, and the fulfilling results pointed in the pre and post intervention
questionnaires and in the cooperative work among the students accordingly the
Jigsaw technique used in the manufacturing of the charts.