Abstract:

In this communication the creation process of an innovative teaching model is exposed. The aim of this work was the reasoned interpretation of the periodic table of the elements by students of the first grade in Primary Education. With this purpose, a methodological model adapted to the students’ circumstances was designed, later the contents of the topic were integrated into the methodological model through the use of a contents map, this map allowed us to obtain key or structuring problems related to the most important contents of the topic. Next, numerous chained questions were designed and distributed to the students in work sheets in order to be worked by them individually at home and in groups in class, these questions helped the students to solve the key problems and to understand and learn the main points of the topic. Finally, the assessment of the students' level of learning was made through the use of learning stairs.

In numerous universities, teachers begin to teach without having learned to teach, this causes the repetition, without updates or improvements, of the predominant master class teaching model that has great limitations to improve the level of student learning. To achieve the aim of replacing the master class with a more innovative and suitable model, we focus on the idea to formulate focused and direct problems and invite students to work on them in small groups. In order to formulate these problems and / or questions which structure the contents of a topic, a preliminary work of preparing a contents map that contained the most powerful interactions among the main contents of the topic was made. The contents map helped to the teachers to think and design problems for each main content (main problem). After posing these problems, activities were designed in form of chained questions as help to organize and facilitate the reasoning of the students. These questions are considered a guide to solve each problem but without providing an answer. This is the process that leads to understanding and, hence, to knowledge. Chained questions have to encourage students to make discoveries and think for themselves, to find their results and then contrast them with those of other groups and with the teacher's opinion and in this way generate lasting learning. To elaborate the questions properly, teachers must know the students and the subject, because each student will have different learning experiences with the same sequence of chained questions. Listening to the group discussions is crucial to check the level of the students with respect to the subject.

The evaluation of the student's learning was based on obtaining an idea of the knowledge about the content of the subject that the group had before the beginning of the experience and at the end of it to elaborate the so-called learning stairs.

Keywords:

Teaching model, key problems, contents map.