Ensino investigativo do eletromagnetismo pela abordagem ISLE

Abstract

In this work, an investigative approach to teaching electromagnetism is proposed, and the results of its application in a public high school setting are reported. The objective of the study is to evaluate students’ understanding of electromagnetism concepts by analyzing the scientific skills they develop when engaging in an instructional method that mirrors the practices of scientists—namely, through investigation, experimentation, and collaboration. For this purpose, the Investigative Science Learning Environment (ISLE), developed by Eugenia Etkina, was adopted as the pedagogical framework. To implement this approach in physics education, a series of investigative experimental activities addressing topics related to electromagnetism was designed. These activities were consolidated into an Educational Product, which was applied to a second-year high school class consisting of 31 students at a State Military Police School located in Aparecida de Goiânia, Goiás. The study was conducted during the first semester of 2024. Initially, students were introduced to the ISLE methodology, followed by the application of the developed experimental activities. Through these activities, students—working collaboratively in groups of five to six—were encouraged to make observations, identify patterns in experimental data, formulate hypotheses to explain these patterns, and make predictions based on their hypotheses. Subsequently, they tested their predictions and hypotheses through further experimentation. Data collection involved direct observation, analysis of students’ written notes, oral presentations, formulated hypotheses, and final conclusions. The findings indicate a high level of student engagement with the investigative practical activities, as well as a noticeable increase in motivation and participation when compared to traditional lecture-based instruction. Moreover, the results suggest that students were capable of independently proposing explanations for observed phenomena without direct teacher intervention. However, analysis of the scientific skills developed—based on a formative assessment framework employing rubrics—revealed that students experienced difficulties both in generating predictions derived from their hypotheses and in designing effective experiments to test them.