Diagnosticando as aprendizagens sobre a radiação do corpo negro: o caso de alunos da 12.ª classe do ensino secundário em Moçambique

Abstract

This study has been developed under the assumption that applying printed formative evaluation assignments may help identifying students’ learning difficulties and their most common “errors”. Part of an ongoing doctoral research in Education, the case study here presented is based on developing assessment questions using MGQ (Question Generating Model). The study was conducted in 2013 in three Mozambican secondary schools and targeted standard 12 students taking Physics classes. Assessment tests on the topic black body radiation were administered to samples of the targeted group. Meanwhile, the results presented and discussed in this paper refer to a sample of only 42 students of a unique class of just one of the three schools involved in the overall research. The fact that this content be the first contact of students with elements of Modern Physics was the reason for the assessment of their level of understanding. The results of the study indicate that the integration of open questions   in a test is a good source for identifying students’ learning difficulties and their most common mistakes students. The results also showed that students face difficulties in explaining Prévost’s theory of radiation exchanges and the concept of black body. Thus, it is suggested that teachers should make use of strategies inspired from the vygotskian concept of Zone of Proximal Development (ZDP) to “bridge” the Prévost’s theory and concept of black body.