Abstract:

Meaningful learning should be an important aim in any teaching activity. It is contextualized within the constructivist approaches and is based on what the student already knows. Learning takes place when the new information interacts substantively and not literally with the specifically relevant knowledge of the learner’s cognitive structure. If the specifically relevant knowledge does not exist, it will be necessary to construct it. With this aim, in this work, a procedure that allows to construct some relevant elements in the student’s cognitive structure, when such elements do not exist, is proposed. The procedure, named Zero, is applied simultaneously with the Applied Physics course taught in the Pharmacy degree. In the first stages, some basic physics and mathematics concepts are combined to highlight their meanings, needs and relationships within the context of the course. The concepts of mathematical function, function limit, derivatives and integrals are used and linked to change, dynamics, the way in which change occurs and its cumulative character. To this end, differentiation and progressive integration in specific situations are used. Concept-in-action and theorem-in-action are considered in simple situations that provide relevant meanings for the learner’s cognitive structure. This cognitive construction enables its first interaction with the new information provided in the Applied Physics course. Later on, the Zero procedure and the Applied Physics course are connected by successive feedback processes. The result should lead to the modification of the concept meanings acquired in both the Zero procedure and the Applied Physics course. This method resembles the one used in a previous work, in which meaningful learning is considered as focused and diffuse thinking acknowledged by Neuroscience.

Keywords:

Meaningful learning, learning strategies, conceptual fields.