New Perspectives in Science Education

Considering the current scientific and technological development of society, the imposition of new needs on Science Teaching is increasingly evident, which impacts on teachers improvement courses to be offered. The aim of this work was to structure a teaching-learning sequence (TLS) provided as in-service course, held in twelve 3-hour meetings in the first half of 2017, with Chemistry teachers of Itumbiara city in the state of Goiás, Brazil. We started applying a inquiry form to teachers of the public schools, in order to carry out a survey about their formation, about difficulties encountered in the accomplishment of daily work. Also, their view on the reality of the Chemistry teaching in High School Brazilian public schools in general and in the specific case of the schools in which they work and, their conceptions about continuing education were requested. After this first analysis, a semi-structured interview was implemented with some randomly selected teachers to identify their training needs. The stoichiometry theme emerged from these findings. Taking into account the universe of knowledge improving of the participants, the psycho-cognitive and didactic principles agreed for the TLS design were supported by Gérard Vergnaud's Conceptual Field Theory. This model redirects the Piagetian focus of the epistemic subject to the subject-in and tries to answer the central question of how people learn in a situation. The sociocultural principle of design aimed at valuing teacher knowledge and experience, and providing, through a shared study, other forms of appropriation of knowledge. 

Keywords: Chemistry Teaching; Stoichiometry; In-service Teachers Training;

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