Investigative activities based on ICT: a study of the social, affective and cognitive fields of children and young people from the essential fundamentals of argumentation in the context of scientific education

Abstract

This qualitative study aims to understand how children and young people interact with scientific content and develop investigative activities mediated by digital technologies, from three domains: social, affective and cognitive. Children and young people from the municipality of Sintra, in Portugal, participated in this research. For data collection, a questionnaire was used, semi-structured interviews and footage of the development of an investigative activity through a Virtual Thematic Module (VTM). Through the Discursive Textual Analysis, predetermined categories and emerging subcategories were analyzed, using the “essential foundations of argumentation in the context of scientific education”: a) the Taxonomic Elements of Scientific Argumentation (TESA); b) the Hierarchical Levels of the Quality of the Modified Argument (QAM); and c) Characteristic Elements of Basil Bernstein's “Pedagogical Discourse”. It was found that the results are more relevant in an investigative activity, mediated by ICT, when taking into account: 1) aspects of the social domain: related to social characteristics and sociological dimensions; 2) aspects of the affective domain: related to technology, the act of writing on the computer, the availability to learn and the emotional manifestations expressed in situations of joy, motivation, surprise and pleasure; and 3) aspects of the cognitive domain, evidenced by scientific argumentation.

Keywords

• ensino de ciências por investigação
• argumentação científica
• tecnologias de informação e da comunicação
• discurso pedagógico de basil bernstein