THE CONTRIBUTIONS OF EXPERIMENTAL ACTIVITIES IN THE TEACHING OF CHEMISTRY

Abstract

 The teaching of Chemistry has maintained practices that are related to the most traditional approaches, based on expository classes, decontextualized, thus removing, from chemistry, its nature, which is, essentially, experimental. The consequence of this is the training of students who do not arouse interest in this area of knowledge. It worries us to know: what are the main characteristics of experimental practices in the teaching of Chemistry? To answer this concern, this research aimed to identify the main experimental approaches in the teaching of Chemistry. The research field were two public schools in the State of Pernambuco and the research participants were 32 high school students from these schools. Questionnaires were conducted with students with open and closed questions, and interviews with 2 teachers. It was observed that experimental practices in teaching chemistry, in public schools, do not always prioritize practical classes, often due to space and materials. The objective of experimental practices is to assist students in the teaching-learning process, and also to assist students in learning the contents of chemistry, according to the students' responses, we observe that they find this practice very important, and 44.15% of the students replied that the teacher does not perform this practice, the use of experimental practices is very important for students' learning, but space is not always favorable. We also observed, through a bibliographic search, that there are several possibilities for the teacher to carry out these experimental activities in the classroom. In addition, we also verified how much the teaching of Chemistry needs to be renewed, after all, these studies bring perspectives that are not common in the classrooms. Many teachers remain with experimental practices related to traditional approaches. Thus, we emphasize the importance of these proposals being discussed in teacher training courses so that the teaching, in our case, of Chemistry surpasses the traditional practices that, historically, are carried out.