Tese de doutoramento em Ensino das Ciências, na especialidade de Ensino da Física, apresentada à Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia da Universidade de Coimbra Cada vez mais o modo como a nossa sociedade evolui exige respostas rápidas por parte das escolas e do sistema educativo. Este facto, aliado às dificuldades reveladas pelos alunos dos Ensinos Básico e Secundário, sentidas essencialmente nas transições entre diferentes ciclos de ensino, e aos avanços e recuos nas reformas educativas e nos programas, aumentam o nível de insucesso e de consequente abandono escolar. A necessidade de compreensão de conceitos abstratos, bem como os conteúdos matemáticos que exige fazem com que a Física se revele como a disciplina onde muitos alunos apresentam sérias dificuldades. Tentar aprender os conceitos e modelos da Física por intuição é impossível. Muitas vezes, as relações causa-efeito que traduzem concretizam-se através de expressões matemáticas entre conceitos abstratos (uns de aprendizagem direta outros bastante mais complicados) que envolvem, frequentemente, variáveis que não se detetam através de uma análise ingénua do dia-a-dia. No que concerne ao tema circuitos elétricos, a sua compreensão requer dominar e relacionar conceitos todos significativamente abstratos, não palpáveis e dificilmente percetíveis para a maioria dos nossos alunos. Este trabalho de investigação teve início com três turmas, num estudo piloto, realizado num colégio em Coimbra, tendo sido posteriormente alargado a mais quatro escolas do país. O seu objetivo geral é melhorar o ensino e a aprendizagem desta disciplina, nomeadamente do tema circuitos elétricos, focalizado no recurso a analogias e à resolução de problemas de modo a tornar as aprendizagens mais significativas. Estas técnicas pretendem induzir nos discentes um espírito científico baseado na aquisição de conteúdos, de desenvolvimento de competências, de busca de causas e argumentos – espírito “inquiry” – que lhes possibilite resolver problemas diversificados através dos seus conhecimentos, ou que lhes mostre a necessidade de procurar soluções, levando-os a proceder como futuros cidadãos ativos, cientes dos seus conhecimentos e dúvidas bem como dos seus direitos e deveres. ABSTRACT The way our society is evolving requires, more and more, quick answers from schools a nd from the Educational System. This fact, together with the difficulties felt by the primary and secondary school students, revealed mainly in the transaction of different teaching cycles, the advances and the retreats concerning the Educational System an d the Curricula reforms, increase the failure level and consequently lead students to quit school. The difficulty in understanding abstract concepts along with the mathematical contents that are required turn Physics into a subject in which a lot of studen ts demonstrate serious difficulties. Within this subject it is impossible to learn concepts and models by intuition. The cause - effect relationships that they indicate are frequently conveyed through mathematical expressions ( among abstract concepts, some o f them of more direct learning, others much more complicated ) often involving variables which are undetectable by means of a naive daily analyses. In what concerns the topic electrical circuits, its understanding requires to dominate and to relate concepts , all significantly abstract, non - palpable and hardly perceptible for most of our students. The present investigation started with three classes within a pilot study, carried out in a private school in Coimbra, being afterwards extended to four more school s in the country. Its main objective is to improve the teaching within this subject, regarding namely the topic electrical circuits, by focusing on the usage of analogies and problem solving. By using these teaching techniques it is intended to induce in s tudents a scientific spirit of content acquisition, the development of skills and the search for causes and arguments - an "inquiry" spirit - that enhances the possibility of the students to solve any kind of problems using the knowledge they already have, or making them realize that they have to research, leading them to behave as future active citizens aware of their knowledge and their doubts, of their rights and their duties The way our society is evolving requires, more and more, quick answers from schools and from the Educational System. This fact, together with the difficulties felt by the primary and secondary school students, revealed mainly in the transaction of different teaching cycles, the advances and the retreats concerning the Educational System and the Curricula reforms, increase the failure level and consequently lead students to quit school. The difficulty in understanding abstract concepts along with the mathematical contents that are required turn Physics into a subject in which a lot of students demonstrate serious difficulties. Within this subject it is impossible to learn concepts and models by intuition. The cause-effect relationships that they indicate are frequently conveyed through mathematical expressions (among abstract concepts, some of them of more direct learning, others much more complicated) often involving variables which are undetectable by means of a naive daily analyses. In what concerns the topic electrical circuits, its understanding requires to dominate and to relate concepts, all significantly abstract, non-palpable and hardly perceptible for most of our students. The present investigation started with three classes within a pilot study, carried out in a private school in Coimbra, being afterwards extended to four more schools in the country. Its main objective is to improve the teaching within this subject, regarding namely the topic electrical circuits, by focusing on the usage of analogies and problem solving. By using these teaching techniques it is intended to induce in students a scientific spirit of content acquisition, the development of skills and the search for causes and arguments - an "inquiry" spirit - that enhances the possibility of the students to solve any kind of problems using the knowledge they already have, or making them realize that they have to research, leading them to behave as future active citizens aware of their knowledge and their doubts, of their rights and their duties.