A manifestação de elementos epistêmicos na construção de argumentos científicos informados por estudantes de química do ensino médio, durante o desenvolvimento de uma sequência de ensino investigativa

Abstract

During the last two decades, discussions about the potential and limitations of the teaching of scientific argumentation in the context of science teaching have intensified. In this sense, the present research seeks to contribute to these discussions. Having as a guiding question: in what ways are the epistemic construction of scientific arguments and the promotion of Scientific Literacy, Chemical Literacy and the manifestation of Cognitive Abilities in the teaching of Chemistry in Basic Education? Aiming to investigate the construction of scientific arguments informed from the teaching of epistemic elements and the manifestation of Scientific Literacy, Chemical Literacy and Cognitive skills. In order to obtain answers to this question, an Investigative Teaching Sequence (SEI) was designed and developed, which aimed to promote conditions for the development of guidelines and discussions on epistemic elements, in order to enable the construction of informed scientific arguments, associated with the content chemical solutions, aimed at promoting Scientific Literacy (AC), Chemical Literacy (AQ) and the manifestation of Cognitive Abilities (HC). Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, SEI was developed remotely, thus enabling the participation of first and second year high school students from public schools in two different cities, both located in Minas Gerais. The corpus of this research was constituted from the development of SEI, in which it enabled the involvement of students in discussions about glyphosate, the chemical content of solutions considering the macroscopic, submicroscopic and symbolic approaches, and also, about the epistemic elements for the construction of informed scientific arguments. Data analysis enabled the development of discussions about the potential and limitations of the development of SEI, about the construction of arguments by students, and also, discussions about the relationships between the construction of informed scientific arguments considering the epistemic elements (EE) and the manifestation of AC, AQ and HC skills. We used as theoretical support for the elaboration of the SEI and also for the analysis of the data, the epistemic elements for the validation of scientific arguments proposed by Sandoval and Reiser (2004), the levels of Scientific Literacy, proposed by Bybee (1997), the dimensions of Chemical Literacy by Shwartz, Ben-Zvi and Hofstein (2006), and the levels of Cognitive Abilities by Suart (2008). The results made it possible to infer a fruitful relationship between the teaching of epistemic elements and the construction of informed scientific arguments, and also, relations between the construction of scientific arguments and the manifestation by the students of abilities of higher levels and dimensions of AC, AQ and HC. We hope that this research can contribute to the development of future research aimed at teaching argumentation in science teaching.