Concept maps as evaluation tools of the integrative construction level of meanings in the biochemistry laboratory under a constructivist approach

Authors

  • Julia Flores Departamento de Biología y Química. Instituto Pedagógico de Caracas Universidad Pedagógica Experimental Libertador, Venezuela
  • María Concesa Caballero Departamento de Didácticas Específicas. Universidad de Burgos, España
  • Marco Antonio Moreira Instituto de Física. Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Brasil

Keywords:

Concept maps, Lab work, Constructivist teaching approach, Meaning construction.

Abstract

This descriptive-comparative work was carried out with 13 students in the areas of Biology and Chemistry of the Pedagogical Institute of Caracas in a course of Biochemistry, who formed two lab groups. Its purpose was to compare the level of integrative construction of scientific meanings achieved in the concept maps developed in an integrated manner to the V diagram around a problem situation raised on enzymes, considering previous knowledge about this disciplinary content. Two statistics were used to compare the groups: student's t test for the pre-existing knowledge and Mann-Whitney U for concept maps. A General Index of Integrative Construction of meanings (IGCIS) proposed by the authors, was incorporated in a novel way to assess concept maps. The results revealed the discriminatory power of IGCIS, being able to differentiate the groups in a more consistent way and in accordance with their levels of prior knowledge.

Downloads

Published

2014-12-31

How to Cite

Flores, J., Caballero, M. C., & Moreira, M. A. (2014). Concept maps as evaluation tools of the integrative construction level of meanings in the biochemistry laboratory under a constructivist approach. Investigations in Science Education, 19(3), 611–624. Retrieved from https://ienci.if.ufrgs.br/index.php/ienci/article/view/76

Issue

Vol. 19 No. 3 (2014): December of 2014

Section

Artigos

License

IENCI is an Open Access journal, which does not have to pay any charges either for the submission or processing of articles. The journal has adopted the definition of the Budapest Open Access Initiative (BOAI), which states that the users have the right to read, write down, copy, distribute, print, conduct searches and make direct  links with the complete texts of the published articles.

The  author responsible for the submission  represents all the authors of the work and when the article is sent to the journal, guarantees that he has the permission of his/her co-authors to do so. In the same way, he/she provides an assurance that the article does not infringe authors´ rights and that there are no signs of plagiarism in the work. The journal is not responsible for any opinions that are expressed.

All the articles are published with a Creative Commons License Attribution Non-commercial  4.0 International. The authors hold the copyright of their works and must be contacted directly if there is any commercial interest in the use of their works.