Abstract:

In the Chilean educational context, the development of skills in the teaching of natural sciences has become a fundamental axis of the design and implementation of the curriculum at the primary and secondary school levels. In particular, at the primary level, the learning objectives for physics are related to experimentation and the development of research skills as learning objectives (planning, conducting and evaluating experiments to demonstrate electrical interactions). Among the skills indicated by the curricular bases is to analyze the home electrical circuit and the electrical forces and to experimentally compare the electrical circuits in series, dealing with the conceptual contents of: electrical energy, potential difference, current intensity, electrical power and resistance, and energy efficiency, types of electricity, friction, contact and induction electrification methods, battery, etc. However, and as has been verified in numerous studies with science teachers in service and future teachers, the teaching of theoretical concepts and the use of traditional resources such as the textbook, usually prevails. In this line, and with the purpose of contributing to the improvement of teaching processes, in particular physics and teacher training, we present part of the results of an educational innovation that integrated a series of experimental activities mediated by ICT resources, more specifically simulators in the eighth level of teaching in primary education.

With a mixed methodology for a case study a SWOT was carried out with all the natural science teachers of the Manuel Arriarán Barros School (Santiago, Chile). To deepen into the weaknesses and opportunities detected a semi-structured interview of perception and opinion was applied on the use of ICT resources and on the teaching of natural sciences. It was possible to verify a traditional trend in the development of teaching and a very low experimental activities value to learning science. Thus and in a pandemic context, three experimental learning activities were designed in which Phet simulators and flipped classroom methodology were selectively integrated. Before implementing the activities, an initial diagnostic test was applied to detect prior knowledge and/or misconceptions in a group of students (N = 37) and later a final test, which allowed quantitative and qualitative comparison of learning outcomes. Finally, and to improve the innovation proposal on the teaching of electricity in virtual mode, a satisfaction survey was applied on the activities developed.

Among the results we found that:
a) the teachers consider the presentation of contents, work guides and PowerPoint to be relevant;
b) students show previous knowledge related to circuits and electrical conductors and conceptual errors about the operation of a circuit and a battery;
c) the simulators and active methodologies promoted a conceptual change (over 80%, final test) and an understanding of the operation of an electrical circuit and its forms of connection.

It was concluded that the integration of ICT resources (simulators) and active methodologies in the development of experimental activities, allowed a significant change in the assessment of ICT and in the understanding of physics concepts at the primary level. The foregoing allows designing and implementing a proposal for initial and continuous training science teachers.

Keywords:

Teaching physics, flipped classroom, simulator Peth, primary school, training teacher.