Analysis of alternative conceptions and learning of pH with a STEM practice implemented through inquiry

Abstract

The teaching of the content of pH is a complex task given that students harbour, since Secondary Education, numerous misconceptions related to this topic. Some of these are also present in teachers (both in-service and in-training), situation that favours their dispersion and hinders the teaching of this concept. Given this situation, educational research has proposed implementing practical activities that include active and interdisciplinary approaches. This paper describes an experimental activity, designed under STEM approach, and implemented through inquiry, for the teaching of pH and its didactics to a group of teachers in initial training —considered as study sample—. Results of its implementation reveal that this practice is effective in relation to learning of pH, while contributing to reduce the presence of the most common misconceptions. However, some of them (—such as considering that skin has a neutral pH, that neutral substances are inert, or that the anthropogenic increase in atmospheric CO₂ causes an increase in the pH of the oceans— continue to be widely widespread in the sample after their completion.