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Educational innovations supported by digital games are proliferating in primary and secondary classrooms, generating research on their effects upon learning outcomes. This review analyzes 27 experiences in the field of life sciences education, identifying the experimental design, traits of the control group, results achieved and the role of the teacher as relevant factors to assess their effectiveness. Most research highlights the increase in student motivation; however, only a few of them show significant achievements in scientific learning. The didactic integration of digital games could promote the students’ involvement in socio-scientific topics and the inclusion of learners with different abilities, although more research with mixed designs is needed, so as to identify the role of the teacher and the most effective didactic intervention model for each context.

La recerca que es presenta en aquest article es basa en un estudi exploratori sobre la visió d'un grup de futurs mestres d'educació primària en relació a l'Educació per a la Sostenibilitat des d'un punt de vista competencial. En primer lloc es redefineix un marc conceptual de competències professionals dels mestres en Educació per a la Sostenibilitat, basat en l'especificació del concepte de competència, el paper com a formadors, les competències generals i el desenvolupament professional en Educació per a la Sostenibilitat. Aquest marc competencial al seu torn orienta l'exploració de la visió sobre competències professionals dels futurs mestres, que constitueix el segon objectiu d'aquesta investigació. L'instrument utilitzat és un qüestionari al qual han respost un grup de 32 alumnes de 3r de Magisteri de la diplomatura d'Educació Primària, l'anàlisi del qual ha estat bàsicament qualitativa. Alguns dels resultats indiquen que els futurs/es docents, participants en l'estudi, emfatitzen la clarificació de valors, la capacitat de prendre decisions, participar i actuar per al canvi, però per contra no consideren visionar escenaris de futur, el pensament crític, el diàleg entre disciplines i la gestió de les emocions i preocupacions, competències professionals essencials en l'Educació per a la Sostenibilitat. Es considera que els resultats obtinguts poden orientar el disseny d'estratègies didàctiques i eines d'avaluació per a la millora de la formació inicial del professorat en l'àmbit de les competències professionals en Educació per a la Sostenibilitat., La investigación que se presenta en este artículo se basa en un estudio exploratorio sobre la visión de un grupo de futuros maestros de educación primaria en relación a la Educación para la Sostenibilidad desde un punto de vista competencial. En primer lugar se redefine un marco conceptual de competencias profesionales de los maestros en Educación para la Sostenibilidad, basado en la especificación del concepto de competencia, el rol como formadores, las competencias generales y el desarrollo profesional en Educación para la Sostenibilidad. Este marco competencial a su vez orienta la exploración de la visión sobre competencias profesionales de los futuros maestros, que constituye el segundo objetivo de esta investigación. El instrumento utilizado es un cuestionario al que han respondido un grupo de 32 alumnos de 3.º de Magisterio de la diplomatura de Educación Primaria, el análisis del cual ha sido básicamente cualitativo. Algunos de los resultados indican que los futuros/as docentes, participantes en el estudio, enfatizan la clarificación de valores, la capacidad de tomar decisiones, participar y actuar para el cambio, pero por el contrario no consideran visionar escenarios de futuro, el pensamiento crítico, el diálogo entre disciplinas y la gestión de las emociones y preocupaciones, competencias profesionales esenciales en la Educación para la Sostenibilidad. Se considera que los resultados obtenidos pueden orientar el diseño de estrategias didácticas y herramientas de evaluación para la mejora de la formación inicial del profesorado en el ámbito de las competencias profesionales en Educación para la Sostenibilidad., The research presented in this paper is based on an exploratory study on the views of a group of future primary education teachers in Education for Sustainability from a competence standpoint. First, we redefine a conceptual framework of professional competencies of teachers in Education for Sustainability. This framework is based on the competence conceptualisation, the role as trainer, generic competencies and professional development on Education for Sustainability. In turn this competencies framework guides the exploration of the student teachers’ views, which corresponds to the second objective of this research. The research instrument used is a questionnaire. A group of thirty-two third-year students on the Bachelor of Primary Education responded to our questionnaire, the analysis of which was qualitative. The findings indicate that student teachers, the participants in this study, emphasise values clarification, decision-making, participation and action for change, however they discount envisioning future scenarios, critical thinking, interdisciplinary dialogue and the management of emotions, essential professional competencies in Education for Sustainability. The findings of this study can guide the design of educational strategies and assessment tools to improve teacher training in the field of professional competencies in Education for Sustainability.

The theory of didactic situations in mathematics postulates that learning is produced by adaptation to an antagonistic milieu, given the central role that this theory assigns to the adidactical situations (moments where the students’ autonomous production of knowledge takes place). However, the relevance of constructivist approaches is questioned by sociocultural theories, when referring to learning scientific contents. In this paper, we justify the importance of a dialogical-cooperative didactic model –in which teacher and students work together in the resolution of problems-situations– during the students’ first encounter with mathematical objects. This justification is based on the epistemological, ontological, semiotic and instructional assumptions of the onto-semiotic approach to mathematical knowledge and instruction.

Future teachers must know, in addition to the basics of the subjects, the basis of the different methodologies that they will be able to use in the classroom. Project-based learning is a methodology which is currently used at schools so as to make a dramatic change possible in relation with the roles of teachers and students, as well as the development of skills. This paper presents a didactic research developed in the subject of Natural Sciences at the degree in Primary Education with the aim of analyzing what it means for students the use of this methodology in the development of an interdisciplinary project in the field of sustainable development. The results that come out of the analysis of the projects show a remarkable level of quality in their elaboration and students express a positive attitude towards their use.

In this paper, we present a research work whose main objective is to reveal the opinions of active teachers about the implementation of a didactic proposal for Natural Sciences in Context, with an interdisciplinary approach, linked to a project-based methodology. The research shows the advantages and limitations indicated by teachers who did not apply the proposal with their respective students, and the opinions of those who did implement it in their classrooms. The latter showed social representations that are rooted in the educational community and would act as implicit obstacles when implementing innovative proposals.

In this paper, we analyze the cognitive-linguistic skills (description, explanation, justification and argument) of 5 students in a technological course, Management of Agribusiness Production Program at the Universidad Tecnológica de Bolívar, in collaboration with Edupol. The study is set at an online course with convergent media, where students analyze industrial processes related to industrial chemistry. The methodology is qualitative with case study; the results show that the cognitive-linguistic skills of students, synchronously and asynchronously, can be enhanced by developing content and social writing through a dialogic communication, and creating a learning environment based on the principles of constructivism in online education.

En este artículo se hace un balance de los logros del pasado y los retos del futuro en el campo de la Didáctica de las Ciencias. Se aporta una visión de los consensos más importantes alcanzados por la comunidad investigadora y se sintetizan algunos elementos esenciales del paradigma emergente de la enseñanza de las ciencias coherentes con ellos (fines, fundamentos teóricos y prescripciones curriculares). Por último se analizan las dificultades para el cambio y se presentan propuestas para dinamizarlo desde una perspectiva científica, pero también ética y sociopolítica. This paper evaluates the past achievements and future challenges on the field of Science Education. It tries to offer a panorama of the most important consensus achieved by the research community and it synthesizes some essential elements of the paradigm emerging from science teaching in line with them (goals, theoretical foundations and curriculum prescriptions). Lastly, it analyzes the difficulties to face change and it submits proposals in order to invigorate it from a scientific perspective, as well as from an ethic and sociopolitical point of view.

El conocimiento del profesor es reconocido como un factor relevante de su desempeño profesional y para promover el aprendizaje de la matemática de sus alumnos. Este artículo profundiza en el conocimiento del profesor y estudia las relaciones entre subdominios del conocimiento didáctico del contenido del modelo denominado conocimiento especializado del profesor de matemáticas. Se buscan relaciones entre el conocimiento de la enseñanza de las matemáticas y el conocimiento de las características del aprendizaje de las matemáticas de una profesora de secundaria en el contenido de semejanza de triángulos, a través de observaciones de aula y entrevista. Los resultados del estudio permiten vincular la investigación y la práctica del profesor, en tanto dan cuenta de las relaciones específicas entre subdominios y sus categorías, y cómo estas propician decisiones en el aula., A teacher’s knowledge is considered a significant factor contributing to their classroom performance and the promotion of mathematics learning in their students. This paper examines the knowledge deployed by a secondary teacher when working on the topic of similarity of triangles, focusing on the connections between subdomains within Pedagogical Content Knowledge in the model Mathematics Teachers’ Specialized Knowledge. Specifically, drawing on data from lesson observations and interviews with the teacher, it considers connections between the subdomains knowledge of mathematics teaching and knowledge of the features of learning mathematics. The results underline the relationship between research and practice, in that they bring to the fore specific connections between subdomains and their related categories and illustrate how these contribute to classroom decisions.

The primary objective of this paper is to propose a mechanism for selecting specific competences for preservice science teacher training, referring to relevant sources for such training. To this end we have used an trans-disciplinary procedure consistent with incorporating critical competences from the following curricular sources: Models of current preservice teacher training in educational literature, the current curriculum of Science in Compulsory Secondary Education in Spain, the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA), the views of in-service secondary school teachers (through a survey whose most relevant results are given), teachers’ epistemological conceptions, the professionalization of teaching and the demands it generates and, finally the social dimension of science.

The research problem addressed in this paper is the visualization of the essential elements of the mathematical activity arising during classroom practice (denitions, properties, mathematical processes, etc.). We provide a tool for this purpose that displays these elements in the form of a graphic, and apply it to the study of the commonalities and differences in three different classes by different teachers in the same institution, year and school level when they teach the bisector. The results permit to infer further aspects of mathematical knowledge in the teaching practice.

This paper presents the results of the analysis of several surveys conducted in three key moments in the training of teachers regarding science education. Before starting the courses, training expectations are heavily influenced by the vision of the chosen specialty. Among the real needs they include the theoretical contents of science, although many students reported their preferences for learning about teaching strategies. Upon completion of the courses, training teachers point out the importance of many more aspects than originally planned, leaving aside the theoretical aspects of science. Finally, after the practicum, many pre-service teachers say that all this has little application in the classroom and show the limited opportunities to implement what they learned in university.

Questions are essential in the construction of new knowledge by scientists. Nevertheless, students ask very few questions in usual classroom situations. In this paper we review the research work on question generation and describe three empirical studies conducted with students of different educational levels facing experimental devices. The aims were: 1) To stimulate and to analyse the questions asked by students when trying to understand the devices; 2) To probe the idea that most of the information seeking questions are originated by failed inferences; 3) To study the influence of the level of students’ knowledge on the questions asked. The procedure produced a significant quantity of information seeking questions, caused by the students’ awareness of misunderstanding. The results obtained support the taxonomy of questions proposed and show that higher knowledge students ask significantly more questions addressed to the scientific model construction than lower knowledge students. The results are replicated consistently.

This paper has three aims: (i) presenting a proposal for continuous professional development which was built from three theoretical backgrounds: a pedagogical reasoning model, a collaborative action-research, and a teachers’ practice aiming at favoring the development of teachers’ pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) on models and modelling; (ii) showing how such theoretical backgrounds were integrated in order to support the actions in the projects; and (iii) discussing their role in the development of teachers’ PCK of models and modelling. This proposal was developed from a critical-reflective approach, which main premises were the conception of teachers as learners, and a real collaboration between teachers and experts, i.e., an interaction in which both participants play equally relevant roles and learn from the reciprocal sharing of their experiences. The proposal was developed with two different groups of Science teachers in Brazil and Mexico. The analysis of the results showed a tendency to effective changes in teachers’ practices.

In Science Education, grouping certain models of teaching under the analogy of the «student as a scientist» is useful and meaningful, since it has become a powerful way of supporting proposals for Science teaching. The starting point of the logical structure for this analogy is taken from history and philosophy of science and the findings have lead to develop teaching strategies for Science classes. The three more important based on the above mentioned analogy teaching models related to the field are explored in this paper; also, their main characteristics are highlighted in terms of the views about knowledge of science and student they postulate. Finally, on the grounds of the above mentioned views, the limitations of these models for effective Science teaching are analyzed and some ways to overcome them are suggested.

Several research studies in mathematics education hasve reported the difficulties that the students have with mathematical proof. In this paper, the productions of Nancy, a student beginning undergraduate courses in mathematics are analyzed. Se formed part of an exploratory study on students'productions about this. From an initial problem that was later modified, their answers were analyzed for the purpose of approximating their performance and advances. In order to describe and to analyze this student's anwers. Toulmin's schemes have been used as an analysis tool., Diversas investigaciones han dado cuenta de las dificultades que tienen los estudiantes en torno a la demostración matemática. En este artículo la actuación de una estudiante de nuevo ingreso de una licenciatura en matemáticas que formó parte de un estudio exploratorio en el que se trataba de estudiar las producciones de los alumnos en torno a este tema. A partir de un problema inicial, que fue posteriormente modificado, se analizan sus respuestas con el fin de aproximarnos a su desempeño y avance. Para describir y analizar las respuestas de esta alumna, se han analizado como herramientas de análisis los esquemas de Toulmin.