Mejoras en el desarrollo de la competencia científica en estudiantes de primer año de secundaria en un liceo de Uruguay

Abstract

It is necessary to provoke a change in learning to achieve motivation, taste for science and the development of scientific competence in students. Thus, during the action research, didactic sequences were developed, and evaluations were applied at the beginning and at the end of the school year in order to analyze the influence of working with Research Projects on the development of scientific competence in two groups. The mixed-cut research was carried out in a lyceum with an unfavorable sociocultural context. The selection of the teacher was carried out by empirical sampling. It was the teacher who selected the best group of first graders and the one with the greatest difficulties. In total, 38 students participated in the study. A documentary analysis was made. It included the rubrics applied to the diagnostic proposal and to the final evaluation. At the beginning of the year, the results in the group 1st grade 1 correspond to a 50% of acceptable answers, whereas the group 1st grade 3 achieved a 38.9%. In the final evaluation, the groups which worked in Research Projects obtained a 56.9% and a 54.9% respectively. When the differences are analysed in the light of all the indicators measured, it can be seen that while in 1st grade 1 there were significant improvements in three of the nine indicators; in 1st grade 3 the improvements were evident in four of them.