From prior knowledge to conceptual elaboration: A case in primary education

Abstract

In the Venezuelan Primary Education (MPPE, 2007) the environment was inserted as an integrating axis that connects with the disciplines of the area of ??mathematics and natural sciences, from this perspective the learning of this concept is fundamental for the understanding of the associated scientific concepts. In order to describe the cognitive dynamics involved in their learning, it was considered necessary to investigate the development of the same in third grade students, from their previous notions to the conceptualization of the environment as a complex system. The study was framed in a Field Investigation, under an action research design. In order to gather the necessary information from 20 selected informants, an open response questionnaire was applied at the beginning and end of the period. For the analysis of the information, the individual and group temporal triangulation was used, identifying the conceptual operators used and the convergent aspects among them. From the analysis made five (5) categories emerged that bring together all the ways of conceptualizing the environment for the moment 1 and Five (5) categories for the moment 2, of these, the latter makes reference to the systemic-complex vision where they were located 11 of the 20 informants. It is concluded that the method used allowed to contrast the advances of the students in the development of their conceptualizations and the cognitive dynamics involved.