Enseñanza y aprendizaje de modelos sobre el equilibrio químico. Una propuesta didáctica con alumnos universitarios españoles y argentinos

Abstract

The models, moreover to be a key tool for make and think science, are a basic recourse in the science learning and teaching. In a preliminary phase of this research, bibliographic and exploratory studies about chemical equilibrium teaching and learning were made. The final objective of this work was assessment the efficacy of a Didactic Proposal (DP) about chemical equilibrium, based on the presentation of intermediary models, through of a research design with students belonging to first year courses of Universidad Complutense de Madrid and Universidad Nacional del Comahue. The conceptual models sequence included four models, and these models were presented by means of activities with particulate diagrams and line graphics. The obtained results in test, activities modules, and interviews, were analyzed. The students hold, after of traditional teaching process, alternative conceptions on the chemical equilibrium, these conceptions indicated difficulties in relate the different explaining levels of chemistry (sub-microscopy, symbolic and macroscopic). The students’ representations were analyzed from the mental models, domain theories, and implicit theories. The DP was an effective recourse in to overcome these alternative conceptions, it favoured the knowledge organization, and it was positively evaluated for the students. Finally, the research implications for chemical equilibrium teaching, and teaching chemistry, were discussed.