O uso de representações visuais para o ensino do conteúdo de forças intermoleculares

Abstract

The use of visual representations in Teaching of Chemistry has been much studied in recent years in order to understand the role of this didactic resource for the understanding of chemical concepts. Some studies have focused on understanding the potential of this resource in the understanding of written texts, such as textbooks, a resource composed of text and images. The focus of this study was the elaboration and evaluation of didactic material composed by text and images, in order to understand how the visual representations in the teaching of chemistry influence the understanding of chemical concepts, specifically the content of intermolecular forces. The material elaborated was evaluated in three moments with American and Brazilian students enrolled in the general chemistry course through semi-structured interviews, which were transcribed, categorized and analyzed. The first moment of the interviews occurred with the material composed only by images, which aimed to understand how the students interact with a sequence of images, which characteristics they pay more attention to and if there was understanding from the proposed sequence. The second moment of the interviews occurred with the material composed by text and images, which aimed to understand the role of the images in the comprehension of the written text and if the combination of both helps in the conceptual comprehension. The third moment occurred with the material composed only by text, which aimed to understand how the student interacts with a resource without visual representations and if there is conceptual comprehension. From the analyzes carried out it is possible to say that when text and images are used together, the student's reasoning tends to be a little more coherent and mechanistic compared to the interviews with only text and with only images, whose student reasoning tends to be more fragmented and structural, according to the previous knowledge they have in their cognitive structure.