New directions for the school science laboratory

Abstract

This article discusses the role of practical activities in the teaching of sciences and reviews how the school science laboratory has been used. The presuppositions regarding the nature of the knowledge that supports these uses and the mistakes to which these lead are discussed. Some of the potentially more relevant and pedagogically interesting alternatives that have been studied are described and contrasted with the kinds of highly structured activities traditionally used by teachers. In particular, this article defends the adoption of a broad range of practical-experimental activities, not necessarily directed in the same way as traditional practical schemes; also recommended is a change of focus in laboratory work, with the objective of shifting the centre of the students activities from exclusive manipulation of equipment, assembly of apparatus and the recording of measurements, to other activities that bring the students closer to the way that science is conducted. These activities involve more the manipulation of interpretations and theories about observations and phenomena, rather than objects and the proposition of knowledge production. Amongst the activities are the analysis and interpretation of results, reflection on the implications of these results and the assessment of the quality of evidence that supports the conclusions obtained.