CONSTRUCTIVIST LEARNING: DESCRIPTION, EXPLANATION, PREDICTION IN A CHEMISTRY CLASSROOM

Scientific description, explanation, prediction as cognitive procedures are inherent to science and deal with understanding the phenomena in the world around us. This explains the fact many studies exist on the nature of scientific description, explanation, prediction and the relationship between them. In the majority of studies on description and explanation in teaching, the emphasis is placed on the role of the teacher as explainer of chemical phenomena and less attention is paid to student's activity in description and explanation of studied phenomena. In this article we try to overcome such one-sidedness in addressing these cognitive procedures. We discuss the relationship between description, explanation, prediction in the study of chemical phenomena in high school, as well as the activity of teacher and student in constructing them. Taking into account the purposes of chemistry teaching, the characteristics of chemistry knowledge, the necessity of student-oriented training, the possibilities for change of learning environment, we propose a methodical model for description, explanation, prediction in the study of chemical substances and phenomena in the light of the basic ideas of constructivism.