ABSTRACT

This study explains the research carried out over four consecutive academic years (from 2005/06 to 2008/09) regarding the use of a cooperative learning methodology in secondary-level chemistry lessons.

The first part of this investigation explains how chemistry is taught and learned in both compulsory and post-compulsory secondary education, considering the way in which its objectives, contents and methods of assessment are organised within the education system and the method by which specific contents and assessment methods are established. We also analyse the pupils’ difficulties encountered by pupils when studying chemistry and the relevant contributions of educational research, thus enabling us to explore the possibility of ensuring more successful learning through cooperative classroom work.

We then go on to explain the most important aspects of learning based on the cooperative learning methodology and the possibility of improving the students’ performance from a cognitive point of view, identifying several critical aspects within the development of an ordinary secondary school chemistry programme. We put forward a teaching model that seeks to achieve an optimum combination of the standard curriculum.

	On the basis of this analysis, we propose a mechanism for regulating the formation of groups based on an evaluation of the qualitative and quantitative differences between the results of cooperative learning and the previous individual contributions of the members of each group. The aim of this is to improve the effectiveness of the cooperative methodology in order to develop the secondary-level curriculum throughout a programme of studies that will adapt it to common situations in our environment and help pupils improve their understanding and academic performance.

	


We first carried out an exploratory study with students at baccalaureate level and in their first years at university to identify the most significant shortcomings and difficulties involved in learning chemistry. According to the results of this study, we focused on one of the subject topics where students appear to encounter the greatest difficulties: chemical bonding.

	This initial diagnosis was used to design a teaching method based on individual work. This was done on two levels. Firstly, the third year of compulsory secondary education, where the pupils first come into contact with the concept of chemical bonding; and secondly, the second year of the baccalaureate, where this topic is studied in greater depth. This is also the year before they take their university entrance exams and begin university in many cases. For both levels the intention was to overcome the barrier posed by the abstract nature of the concepts that are implicit to chemistry itself by presenting them within the context of everyday situations.

Having applied the experimental design, we analyzed the results that were obtained, comparing them with the control groups’ results and confirming the validity of the proposal for both study levels.

The second application of this diagnostic investigation involved examining the relationship between the results achieved by pupils, focusing on the influence between each student’s skills and knowledge at the beginning and end of the period that we studied. Specifically, we wanted to find out whether there is any concordance between the relevant contents that need to be known before the topic is studied and the knowledge that the pupil has gained after our intervention. A set of variables was therefore established in terms of the pupils’ knowledge at the beginning and end. From a constructivist perspective, this defined which aspects are necessary initially as prerequisites for learning other more difficult ones, as well as those aspects which are not necessary.

	Having defined the problems encountered in education in terms of basic concepts and the concepts of chemical bonding, we developed core chemistry contents for the first year of the baccalaureate using a cooperative methodology. The key research purpose is to find the best way to organise groups within the classroom, based on a dynamic feedback mechanism that enables positive interaction between pupils. It was achieved through a series of activities in which the pupils worked together. Initially, the groups were randomly put together and they were later reorganised on the basis of the results achieved. This reorganisation responded to an attempt to take advantage of the interaction between the pupils as explained by Vygotsky in his “zone of proximal development” theory.

The main advantage offered by this methodology is the possibility of quickly and effectively supplying feedback during the process itself. This made it possible to reorganise the composition of the work groups, improving each group’s performance and provide a tool that allows the teacher to obtain information relatively quickly about how to distribute the pupils in this type of group work.