Writing explanations based on experiments in chemistry classes

Abstract

For students to learn to write according to the typical ways of each discipline, it is necessary to generate classroom proposals that aim at developing a specific literacy in each subject. This would involve disciplinary teachers as mediators to favor the development of complex written practices. In this work, we present a classroom experience, in which the Chemistry teacher in collaboration with an interdisciplinary team, assumes a mediating role in the construction of explanations related to experiments in which various phenomena occur from a chemical reaction. The writing of explanations promoting interactions in the classroom that will facilitate the task was requested. The methodology used consisted of a workshop in which secondary school students from a school in San Juan (Argentina) carried out experiments and produced written explanations. The results show that, initially, they wrote procedural recounts and / or incomplete explanations. Faced with these difficulties, the tools provided during classroom interaction guided them in the collaborative construction of new explanations. The reflection on their written productions allowed them to rethink and rewrite with improvements in relation to the Chemistry content and the structure of the explanations.