Abstract

OKI, Maria da Conceição Marinho  and  MORADILLO, Edílson Fortuna de. O ensino de história da química: contribuindo para a compreensão da natureza da ciência. Ciência educ. [online]. 2008, vol.14, n.01, pp.67-88. ISSN 1516-7313.

This paper presents the results of an exploratory study undertaken during a course of History of Chemistry for Chemistry students. The course aimed to help students to understand the nature of science and basic concepts in chemistry. The study, conducted by the course teacher, analyzed the convergence between history, and philosophy of science education and had a qualitative approach using participant observation. The data were qualitatively analyzed using a “mixed model”, with two kinds of analytical categories: epistemological categories previously defined, that guided the epistemological dimensions of analysis and categories built from the answers given by the students through open questionnaires. The results show that the History of Chemistry course was important for the students to improve their knowledge about the nature of science. The students had less simplistic and more contextualized conceptions about the nature of science, in spite of the difficulty of overcoming some strongly embedded notions in the students’ epistemological views.

Keywords : History and Philosophy of Science; Chemistry Teaching; Nature of Science.

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