The natural science teaching laboratory: main course or second-table meal?

Abstract

This document is a modest contribution of the Coordination of the Chemical-Biological Sciences Area to this Interinstitutional Meeting, convened by the Ministry of Public Education of the State of Puebla and the University of the Americas-Puebla. This paper represents a first approach to the philosophical and methodological assumptions that support the teaching process of Natural Sciences, based on practical work in the laboratory. It is an attempt to conceptualize this instructional method, or rather, it consists of a series of reflections aloud, tending to a probable reelaboration of this concept. This paper, far from exhausting the problem, raises, in general terms, some considerations about the current state of Natural Science teaching through the laboratory. It also briefly analyzes some of the shortcomings and deficiencies that characterize this didactic approach in our educational institutions and proposes some alternative solutions. The aim is to show the rupture that exists between the contents and methods in force in the teaching of science and the scientific and didactic advances of our days. We also propose the urgent need to adopt an instructional approach to the laboratory that is more congruent with the socioeconomic reality of our country. We believe, in this way, we can contribute more efficiently to the training of future teachers of the year 2000.