Abstract
This chapter deals with practical implications of the conceptual profile theory to the design and development of teaching sequences, using as an example a teaching project in thermal physics with 9th grade students in Brazil. We start with a discussion of a simplified version of the heat conceptual profile model built by Amaral and Mortimer, and then we show how the contents and activities of the teaching sequence fit with the learning demands related to this simplified model. Next, we examine the learning contexts and micro-contexts of the activities that have proved effective in promoting understanding of the potentialities and limitations of the prescientific zones of heat and introducing and strengthening the scientific way of thinking. Finally, we present classroom teaching episodes that indicate how the alternation between authoritative and dialogic discourse contributes to enhance students’ awareness of the heat conceptual profile. The work allowed us to indicate the heuristic potential of this theoretical framework for innovative teaching practices in science education.
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- 1.
The first edition of the collection “Construindo Consciências” was published in 2003, and the second revised edition, in 2007. The chapter we refer to is “The Control of Body Temperature by Living Beings”, which is part of the content of the 8th year of secondary education.
- 2.
This and other questions from the students, as well as the answers given by them in the dynamics of the activities in the science classrooms, were examined in the article by Aguiar et al. (2010), published by JRST.
- 3.
This episode was analyzed in detail by Aguiar and Mortimer (2005).
- 4.
This is one of the episodes analyzed in Scott et al. (2006).
- 5.
For some teaching content and levels, it is also a matter of examining the passage from one scientific zone to another, with the domains and fields of validation that belong to it. This does not happen here, where heat is being taught at an elementary level.
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Aguiar, O.G. (2014). The Implications of the Conceptual Profile in Science Teaching: An Example from a Teaching Sequence in Thermal Physics. In: Mortimer, E., El-Hani, C. (eds) Conceptual Profiles. Contemporary Trends and Issues in Science Education, vol 42. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-9246-5_9
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