el desempeño de las competencias científicas de uso de pruebas y ...

22
Regarding the third research objective: 8) the use of the model of populations’
maintenance, in all groups, is more frequent than the use of the model of
ecological efficiency; 9) the discourse movements through the different stages in
the contextualisation show that the process of reaching decisions is far from
linear; students move forward and backward during the discussion; 10) the
experts’ support in guiding students, in the integration of the model of energy
transfer or in the consideration of the available data, influences the students’
discourse, increasing its complexity.
An educational implication drawn from the study is the need for engaging
students in these scientific practices (use of evidence and modelling) in order to
develop their competencies. In particular, if one of the educational goals is for
students to identify data and to relate them, it is necessary to provide students with
opportunities for working with a wide range of pieces of data. If the goal is to
apply a model, establishing relationships among worlds of knowledge, it is
necessary to provide students with opportunities for producing models and
representations as well as for reflecting about their meanings. It needs to be noted
that the processes of production and reflection support students, and it is also
useful for teachers, as it facilitates the identification of students’ difficulties and
the design of tasks in order to help them to overcome them.
In conclusion, taking into account that a goal at the end of secondary education
is that students would be able to reflect about their knowledge and to apply it to
real life problems, we consider that it is relevant to use in the classroom problems
contextualized in real life, as marine resources management. Thus students are
required to mobilize their knowledge by connecting it with available evidence,
which promotes the development of scientific competences.