Analogical Modelling in Science Education

Abstract

In this paper, we aimed at investigating: (i) the steps that can be used to guide the elaboration and the conduction of analogical modelling activities in science education; and (ii) the way in which the analogical modelling activities based on those steps may have contributed to science students’ experience of the sub-processes of analogical reasoning. To address the first purpose, we adapted some stages for modelling found in the educational literature, so that they would make the development, review and revision of models and analogies possible. To address the second purpose, we conducted an empirical study. A teaching sequence about the dissolving process, based on analogical modelling, was producOrg. The sequence was taught in a first-year high school chemistry class, and the data collected supported the drawing of the case study analysed in this paper. Our results showed that specific elements of analogical modelling activities that supported the occurrence of the analogical reasoning sub-processes, including those identified as not spontaneous in previous studies. One of the implications of this study is that our description for analogical modelling steps can guide teachers and researchers on designing and conducting science teaching activities in which models and analogies could be created, criticised and reviewed by students, in a process in which meanings are being gradually negotiated in an attempt to understand the entity modellOrg.

Keywords

• modelagem analógica
• analogias
• ensino de ciências