The evocation of metavisual thought in activity on the effect of temperature the rate of a reaction

Abstract

This qualitative study is a section of a larger research on the teaching of chemistry, with a focus on kinetics, from the perspective of metacognition. The objective of this work is to analyze how the metavisual incidents evoked by a group of students influence the learning process during an activity that addresses the effect of temperature on the rate of a chemical reaction. The metavisual activity was carried out with three undergraduate students at a public Brazilian university. During the activity, students were encouraged to reflect by comparing their own symbolic and pictorial representations with the chemical diagrams presented by the teacher. The results indicated that the metavisual incidents, in an integrated manner, allowed the learners to revise and reconstruct their thinking at different stages of the task. In addition, the study also addresses some difficulties related to general chemistry concepts and implications for teaching in the context of this research.