Abstract:

The successive adjustments in the official guidelines for teaching Physics require teachers to continuously reflect upon and question the pedagogical strategies they are implementing. There is a consensus regarding the significant importance of conducting experiments in the classroom for the construction of a solid understanding of Physics, even though the results may not always meet the expectations.

With the aim of verifying whether the use of an active methodology, applying the Station Rotation Model, enables students to achieve more meaningful learning in the concept of light refraction and increases their motivation, an investigation was conducted using qualitative methodology and a case study as research method.

The understanding of optical phenomena involves abstract concepts, mathematical tools, and explanatory models, and possibly for this reason, it is identified in the literature as being associated with several difficult-to-correct preconceptions.

The mentioned methodology was applied in two classes from the same secondary school, taught by the same teacher, in order to have greater control of the variables involved.

The research project was designed in the following stages: pre-test to assess students' knowledge and preconceptions, implementation of the Station Rotation Model lesson, post-test to verify potential learning outcomes, and questionnaire to evaluate motivational and interest-related aspects (SWOT analysis).

The project of the Station Rotation Model was designed based on different ways of learning, with the purpose of categorizing the methods by which knowledge can be acquired by the students.

The main purpose was to interconnect experimental activities, digital technology (simulator), reading/interpretation of a text, visualization of a video, and listening to music through a circuit of four simultaneous tasks. These tasks took place during a single class, with students divided into groups and the teacher acting as a mediator.

Although generalization of the results is not intended, it can be asserted that, in this case study, there are indicators of increasing learning from the pre-test to the post-test. The achieved motivation was very positive (85.4% of students indicated being highly motivated or motivated during the class). Another particularly interesting result is the students' perspective on the impact of active methodologies on their learning, which increased from 68% to 84% in one class but only from 32% to 41.7% in another class.

Keywords:

Experiments, Optical phenomena, Learning, Station Rotation Model.