BASIC SCIENCE CONCEPTS IN THE LENS OF DAVYDOV’S DEVELOPMENTAL INSTRUCTION: INTRODUCTION TO CHEMISTRY FOR 6-7 GRADERS

Abstract

The Developmental Instruction considers scientific concepts as mental tools with the main function to guide human actions in a certain domain. According to the Developmental Instruction, each concept stems from a goal-oriented activity that should be reconstructed for students from scratch if we want them to learn the concept properly. As Davydov emphasized, this helps students explore all necessary internals and limitations that can hardly be learned in a different way. Fundamental chemistry concepts such as “chemical element” and “chemical reaction” have a long history, and their predecessors underwent several turns and twists on the way to their modern forms. These pre-concepts originated in ancient times and guided the craft of substance transformations, and their modern descendants still do it. The goal-oriented actions of substance transformations are in the focus of our introductory curriculum. Students name the substances they work with using their own words and understanding. Students’ “provisional language” helps them discuss the results of their simple experiments and plan the follow-ups. As the work goes on, students develop their understanding toward the idea of conservation of elements in chemical reactions. Short essays containing no chemical names and formulas describe the relevant chemical transformations and provide the cultural or historical background. Our teaching experience shows that such kind of introduction turns the systematic chemistry course into the answer to the reasonable questions that the students have about substances and their transformations.