Use of Active Teaching-Learning Methodologies in Approaching the Basic Concepts of Engineering Education: Influence of the Experimental Approach to Students' Alternative Conceptions in Learning the Concepts of Heat and Temperature

Abstract

This research aims to contribute to improving the quality of engineering education, by focusing on the introduction to the fundamental thermodynamics concepts. As thermodynamics is one of the foundations of many engineering problems, the need to discuss the best methodologies for approaching the fundamental concepts of heat and temperature in the first years is justified. The research intends to evaluate the impact of valuing the alternative conceptions of these concepts in the classroom, as they are of great importance in the teaching-learning process of natural and exact sciences. These conceptions assume a central role, because all the work developed in the classroom must be done in such a way that students are encouraged to present, question and test their previous ideas. While teaching of Natural and Exact Sciences, the students' difficulty in relating the theory developed in the classroom with the reality around them is a significant barrier, as the theory is made up of concepts that are abstractions of the students' reality. Therefore, to achieve a significant learning according to Ausubel definition, it is necessary to follow an active teaching approach, i.e. it is necessary to evaluate the students' initial knowledge, identify these substitute conceptions, develop a dialogical and reconstructive questioning process, promote communication and value the epistemic function of the processes involved. In this way a new active approach to teach the fundamental concepts of heat and temperature concepts was developed and tested in two classes of the 9th grade of the Secondary School “25 de Junho” in Vila Municipal de Massinga, in Mozambique. In one class the experimental methodology was tested and the other class was used as a control group. A pre-test was implemented to identify and characterize the alternative conceptions and the level of both classes was equivalent. Then, in the experimental class, three lectures were taught on heat, temperature and direction of spontaneous heat transfer using an approach in which the focus was on valuing the students' preconceived conceptions. In the control class, the same classes took place using the traditional expositive method, without taking into account the alternative concepts. After applying a post-test, the results showed that in the experimental class the level of correct answers rose from 42.6% in the pre-test to 91.4% in the post-test, while in the control class the rise was 46, 7% in the pre-test to 57.7%. The research shows that by valuing the students' alternative conceptions, there was significant learning in the formulation of the concepts of heat and temperature.