8. The project method and Gowin`s V as didactic strategies for the learning of chemistry

Abstract

The project method emerges like a vision of education that encourages students to take greater responsibility for their learning. The work presented is a field research under the explanatory quantitative approach with a quasiexperimental design and posttest type, whose objective was to compare the effect of the projects method and Gowin´s V, as didactic strategies focused on laboratory work over student achievement in terms of learning from chemical reactions of carbonyl compounds. A test to verify prior knowledge was administered and statistically processed to determine normality, homogeneity and equivalence of groups. Then, the implementation of strategies, posttest and scores were interpreted by analysis of variance, ANOVA. The results show us that learning in the students who worked with the strategy of the Projects method is significantly higher compared with those who were treated with the strategy of Gowin´s V for learning chemical reactions of carbonyl compounds in laboratory. This supports the view of the need for this learning in chemistry for developing the process of thinking, and it is a way of understanding the meaning of school based on teaching for understanding.