Learning to think and act as scientists: cooperative games in primary education

Abstract

Educating scientifically literate citizens is the perennial goal of science education, and specially of STS orientation. An essential (and difficult) component of this goal is to learn how science works, that is, to learn to think and act as scientists. This study presents a STS-based experience to innovate the initial teacher training and science education in primary education through cooperative games, whose objective is to teach about scientific activity, using scientific and critical thinking to solve scientific problems and also useful for daily life. The experience uses the game of dice, to predict the content of the hidden face of a cube based on the observations and regularities identified in the other visible faces and so that only responses that are accompanied by proofs or evidences are admitted. The teachers prepared the didactic materials for the classroom applications, collected the products of the activities and reflected on their innovative experience. The results show that the students assume the rules of the game and achieve the proposed learning. The majority of the students produced arguments and justifications of quality for the solutions obtained to the raised problem, and some tangible elaborated products are discussed. Further, teachers value positively the experience due to the satisfaction and involvement of students along its implementation, the cooperative and playful methodology that was very productive for reflection and for allowing them to significantly develop a difficult and forgotten topic of the curriculum that does not require prior learning.