THE INVESTIGATIVE TEACHING OF SCIENCE: HOW AND WHY

In this communication I intend to discriminate and characterize some models of science teaching that have been applied over the years in secondary schools and universities and I will defend an investigative model. The first being characterized is the classic teaching by exposition model (TEM) This is based on a positivist epistemology that arose with the important work of Auguste Comte, and on a strongly behaviorist educational psychology. Teaching was, and in many cases even today is, overly expositive, without any concern to ensure the cognitive readiness of students, submitted to long oral presentations of content by teachers. In the 60s, the USA developed an educational reform of science teaching, as a consequence of the Sputnik effect, and it became to be defended a teaching model based on the rediscovery of knowledge by students. It is the teaching by discovery model (TDM), whose version of inquiry teaching is still defended by many teachers, despite having an underlying empirical-inductivist epistemology that modern rationalism and criticism have widely criticized. The third is the teaching by conceptual change model (TCCM) that emerged following the alternative conceptions movement. Its application has also led to results far from what was expected. For this reason, we defend today a teaching by research model (TRM) that will be the key theme of this communication. Beyond its characterization, I present an example of one of many worksheets we have produced for applying the methodological pluralism defended in this model.