Analysis of the treatment of chemistry concepts in textbook collections of the initial grades

Abstract

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.14244/19827199791

Although the Chemistry discipline integrates the education curriculum only at high school level, it is possible to refer to this science in the early years of schooling. Furthermore, despite the fact that research production focusing on natural sciences for the initial grades has grown, still only few studies on the subject can be found. The purpose of this article was to survey basic concepts for the study of chemistry treated in science textbooks from 1st to 4th grades in elementary school, approved by the National Program of Textbooks - PNLD/2007. Textbook collections were analyzed with respect to conceptual sequence according to the Theory of Meaningful Learning. Deficiencies were identified in conceptual sequence and in the definition of concepts, when some of them are discussed posteriorly to their subsumers. However, several examples of adequate definition and treatment of these contents were collected. We expect to elucidate how the basic contents for the study of chemistry should be treated in the early grades. Specially when establishing the first contact of students with a scientific concept or field of knowledge, it is important to perform the evolution of concepts very carefully. The low concern given to the sequential treatment of concepts can lead to formation of (or reinforcement) misconceptions that may hinder the learning of later contents, when these students join high school.

Keywords: Textbook, Elementary school, Chemistry.