School Learning from the Seeding Project in the Context of Child Care

Aprendizaje escolar del proyecto de siembra en el contexto

del cuidado infantil

Jhon Holguin-Alvarez

1a

, Fany Figueroa-Hurtado,

2

Juan Apaza-Quispe,

3

5

ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5786-0763

1

ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7772-6681

5

Universidad César Vallejo, Lima, Perú

135

Universidad Nacional de Educación Enrique Guzmán y Valle, Lima, Perú

Recibido: 28 de octubre de 2020 Aceptado: 17 de enero de 2021

Abstract

The research proposed to develop scientific learning and research skills, developing in the pre-

experimental method. We executed a seeding program with cognitive and cultural exchange in

results. The proficiency and cognitive interrelation allowed this improvement, being the main

contribution of the study to the science area.

Keywords: Educational Interrelation; School Science Project; Scientific Learning; Scientific

Skills; Sowing Project.

Resumen

La investigación propuso desarrollar el aprendizaje científico y sus habilidades de

investigación, desarrollándose en el método pre experimental. Ejecutamos un programa de

sembrío con intercambio cognitivo cultural en 250 individuos de un Complejo Asistencial

Infantil. En este muestra intervinieron escolares citadinos (sin conocimiento del uso de recursos

naturales) y de origen andino (con conocimiento de sembrío y cosecha). El experimento se basó

en la aplicación de cuatro fases didácticas: (1) organización intercultural, (2) colaboración para

el análisis, (3) experimentación, (4) argumentación científica. Encontramos incremento del

aprendizaje científico en la muestra y sus habilidades para formular problemas, plantear

hipótesis, argumentar y formular resultados. La proeficiencia e interrelación cognitiva

permitieron esta mejora, siendo la principal contribución del estudio al área de ciencias.

The pedagogy of science skills presents current problems that aggravate educational

methodologies, teaching systems and evaluation. This problem is crucial, since it must start

from the student's curiosity to promote their motivation and their disposition towards science.

The pedagogy for the scientific method focuses mainly on questions and assumptions about the

phenomena observed in the environment, from experiences through training in investigative

autonomy, which formalizes scientific skills in Higher Education. Algunos estudios

evidenciaron que los estudiantes entre cuatro y seis años demuestran competencias científicas

con determinados niveles de desarrollo al participar en proyectos interactivos con los recursos

naturales, un ejemplo claro es el cultivo de habilidades científicas, esto ha ocurrido tanto en la

Rodríguez et al., 2015).

Some reports show that 40% of children develop a low level of learning in science, but

it is surprising to know that 0.6% developed tasks at a high level (UNESCO, 2016; OECD,

2016). The Local Management Unit of sector 04 (2014), located in the capital, reported that

36.8% of its students reach a low level in learning natural sciences and scientific argumentation,

only 2% obtained a satisfactory level . This implies certain weaknesses in all areas of

educational training, the need to adapt the curricular programming by integrating other areas

such as communication and mathematics, arises after the search to obtain achievements of

competences to autonomously develop inclusive scientific inquiry (Álvarez, 2015; Hardianti &

Kuswanto, 2017). In this context, we consider that scientific competences must be inclusive to

integrate the use of reflective skills from mathematics and reading as well as analytical from

Two important resources also play a role here: (a) educational games (b) the use of

2017). Therefore, crops, in addition to increasing scientific skills, promote student

environmental attitudes; they also generate greater motivation to investigate natural elements

unknown to themselves.

Scientific skills are human reasoning skills or mental processes that support, analyze,

extrapolate, and empower scientific principles. The steps of the scientific method allow the

student to develop skills that facilitate the procedure to reach rational thinking, in order to solve

problems and reach the knowledge of the truth (Ramírez, 2010). In this regard, we can consider

the scientific method as a link between knowledge and the investigating subject; from its

the scientific inquiry that students carry out will depend on the time each proposed pedagogical

situation lasts. In other words, cognitive processing for the scientific method must be

accompanied by the necessary attitudes (interest, reflection, self-government) to keep the

cognitive skills involved in using scientific skills activated. Some structuring dimensions of

scientific competence are the skills for formulating problems, posing hypotheses, the moment

of testing and the presentation of results. The scientific knowledge acquired allows the student

to understand the phenomena that occur in their natural environment, so much so that they are

able to reflect on the methodical steps of the investigation. Science is a conglomerate of

knowledge, through which an attempt is made to give explanations and foundations to the

phenomena of reality; in addition, it seeks to master the steps that explain the causes and effects

The theory that Bruner raises about learning by discovery (cited in Soto & Navarro,

project can lay the foundations for acquiring the capacity for analysis and organization in the

pragmatic application of knowledge in reality.

learning of schoolchildren (ANDECHA, 2015; Macedo, 2012; Ministry of National Education

of the Republic of Colombia, 2012). The importance of productive projects lies in the

complementation of formal education with productive work in the environment, so that it

integrates and opens the way for meaningful learning in the area of science. In this sense, it is

considered as the opportunity to involve different scientific experiences that also imply the use

both contexts. Here, the proposal starts from the elaboration of intercultural crops, since it

guides the teaching as the construction of the student from different contexts and the guiding

teacher to encourage comprehensive education and productive work. In research, the

intercultural sowing project is a proposal aimed at strengthening the competencies and skills of

the scientific method in primary school students, through the cultivation of seeds of different

origin, direct experience with the environment (soil, air, water), it should be noted that

productive work also has favorable implications in the development of scientific socialization

through interaction between peers.

The study by Chávez (2018) exemplifies the model of this experience based on seed

investigation with similar characteristics, including a larger sample quantity, since it was

at the school stage, considering the vulnerable context in a district of the capital, from Peru.

use of school methods in experimental science and attitudes towards their belief or investigative

determination, after including in their activities some methods of guided inquiry. On the other

hand, Martín & Santa (2017), involved the development of ecological spaces in the learning

programming of the scientific inquiry competence, as well as in the identification of natural

environmental education.

The research has a quantitative approach, pre-experimental design (Tamayo & Tamayo,

2015). The population was characterized by 1290 students from four Municipal Assistance

Centers located in Lima. They received classes by grades or by levels of attention (academic

origin caused the replication of similar studies developed in this context; we used the Skills

polytomous-type items with an option of open responses.

The validity of the instrument was considered after obtaining agreements averaged

schools and universities in the country. The reliability of the instrument corresponded to the

children from their parents. To achieve internalization in this context, the informed consent of

the tutors and coordinators responsible for this institution was requested, since they were the

representatives in charge of said student population. To start the research, 536 learning sessions

of the Sowing Project were consolidated based on the experience of intercultural sowing of

Dewey's proposals. The teachers applied the phases of the children's scientific method in four

didactic moments: (1) intercultural organization, (2) collaboration for analysis, (3)

experimentation, (4) scientific argumentation. The activities were adapted to the context of the

students in the Complete Child Care Center, in order to provide as much time as possible for

the development of scientific skills and their usual activities. An advantage of the development

of antecedents, causes and effects [relative to the hypothesis statement dimension], the

found differences in indicators such as the execution of experiments (M = 3.41; p <.005),

The findings found so far on the school scientific method showed significant differences

in the comparison of evaluation scores, these evidences being similar to that of Leibovitz et al.

(2015), who increased the knowledge, understanding and procedural skills through the analysis

work with the ecosystem and its particularities improve the process of the school scientific

method (Álvarez, 2015; Cabrera, 2016; Martín & Santa, 2017). These improvements were also

pronounced in the sample that we integrate, favored by the activities of analysis of the earth's

ecosystems and the use of seeds for the crops achieved in the productive projects that we

applied.

Bruner's theory is accepted (cited in Soto & Navarro, 2005), from which scientific learning is

conceived as a construct that develops through experience, in intermediate processes in

classroom learning. Due to its experimental nature and autonomous construction, this allows

the student to direct their learning process to promote their findings through scientific

knowledge in a stage of writing in the stage of construction of results in the classroom.

Regarding the aspects of the scientific method, hypothesis statement and formulation of

the problem, the evidence of statistical improvement found was similar to that found by

Dejonckheere et al. (2016), who demonstrated that spontaneous play is an important didactic

method to assess children in understanding causal events (cause and effect) and understanding