INTRODUCTION

This research originates from the need to find strategies to deliver natural sciences topics in a fifth grade classroom in a way that alters the classroom’s dynamic to solidify scientific competences evaluated by the Ministry of National Education’s (MEN, for its Spanish acronym) Saber 5° test (Diaz, 2006; Escobedo, 2001).

PBL emerges as an alternative to address this issue and to break the institution’s prevailing paradigm of traditional education (Garcia, 1999; Guerrero, 2019). PBL links students’ everyday life with the concepts that are typical of each grade, in this particular case, of the fifth grade (Gil & De Guzman, 1993).

Sastre and Araujo (2018) explain that PBL is regarded as an innovative approach in training and academic processes occurring nowadays. Its importance is discernible in primary, secondary and high school education, with more intensity in the latter, i.e., it has become a possibility for teachers to connect concepts with experience and practice (Camacho, Casilla & Finol, 2008).

Consequently, Betancourt (2006) and Perez (2015) highlight the importance of PBL in developing students’ autonomy since its focus is on students instead of teachers. Students’ active and permanent role purports to get them in charge of their learning. Thus, students’ motivation increases based on the fact that they become part of the solution to the problems related to reality and context (Giraldo, Zuluaga & Naranjo, 2020).

The backdrop of the project was the fifth grade at Instituto Universitario de Caldas; students’ age ranges between 9 and 12 years, a total sample of 81 students was divided in two groups, 5A and 5B, an experimental and control group, respectively, to compare their results in the pre-test as a diagnosis, and in a post-test following the implementation of the experimental group’s strategy (Lopez, Marulanda & Piedrahita, 2011; Martinez, 2011).

The PBL strategy was applied through a didactic unit about the topic of the respiratory system; the strategy was selected because it allowed gathering the eight steps of PBL in its structure, according to Morales and Landa (2004). A significant result showed that PBL positively impacted the development of scientific competences, also, of analytical capacities and interpretation of all sorts of texts, which in turn has a direct impact on motivation, curiosity and the likelihood to build and develop a set of basic cognitive, procedural and attitudinal skills that will provide students awareness of their learning (Gutierrez et al., 2018; Marin, Parra, Burgos & Gutierrez, 2019).

In that regard, PBL gives students an active and critical role within their training process, they are in charge of proposing real solutions to real problems. Therefore, PBL favors the development of scientific competences: comprehensive use of scientific knowledge; inquiry and explanation of phenomena through a guided, organized and deliberate process; connection of concepts with a problem that must be solved by the student (Calderon, 2012).

DIDACTIC UNIT

According to Moreira (2010), didactic units allow a constant evaluation of processes that go hand in hand with students’ work, in other words, planning, evaluation and execution of strategies used by teachers. Also, the structure of didactic units made room for the eight steps to execute PBL in elementary, as Morales and Landa (2004) suggest. These steps entail reading and analyzing a problem, brainstorming, listing things that are known and unknown, in addition to thinking about the problem and what its solution requires, making it indispensable to define the problem, as well as to obtain, analyze and present the results.

This research began with a bibliographic review, which gave input to the process and helped built the robust and concrete bases required to obtain reliable results. The pre and post-tests were produced in Google Forms, which enabled immediate statistic results of students’ performance before and after the implementation of PBL (Fuente, Manzanares & Manzanares, 2006).

Questions in both tests were selected taking into account Alfarado’s (2019) suggestions, the author provided elements to categorize questions according to the level of competence to be evaluated.

METHODOLOGY

The project’s development was based on action research, its three fundamental steps go hand in hand with the specific objectives of this research: planning, implementing and evaluating; the qualitative approach was followed since it is useful to describe situations, actions and strategies observed in the classroom, also, it helped study the context and look for solutions to the proposed problem (Elliot, 1991).

Hernandez, Fernandez and Baptista (2010) describe the qualitative approach as a scenario in which interpretative practices allow understanding the world, making it visible, changing it and transforming it into a real or tangible scene, i.e., modifying it to notes, recordings, observations and documents. Therefore, researchers and participants discuss a problem that needs to be tackled, modified or evaluated, in an educational environment, in this particular case (Alvarez, 2003; Cuenya & Ruetti, 2010).

Participants were conveniently selected based on the close relationship with fifth graders as a teacher of natural science of the experimental group (41 students); the control group (40 students) had a different teacher, which used traditional teaching strategies. Groups are homogeneous in terms of applied methodological strategies, age groups, socioeconomic situations, educational facilities and level reached of the aforementioned scientific competences (Arteta et al., 2002; Coronado & Arteta, 2015). It must be emphasized that fifth graders are going through a time of academic changes, seeing as they are on their way to high school.

Three instruments were used to answer the problem question; the pre-test was used in an initial identification process, it was made up of nine questions that were categorized per academic competence to be evaluated and its three degrees of difficulty per ICFES’ Saber 5° test; the didactic unit was implemented as an intervention mechanism within the experimental group; and the post-test, which followed the same mechanism as the pre-test.

Table 1.
Structure of the pre and post-test
Source: compiled by the authors (2020)

RESULTS

The Student's t-test available in Excel was used to analyze information, generate results and provide recommendations, it generated statistical comparisons between the control and experimental group for each of the tests applied. Results were as follows:

Table 2
Results analysis using T-Student.
Source: compiled by the authors (2020).

As seen in the next illustration, the pre-test revealed that the control and the experimental groups are homogeneous, which means that they have no significant differences in terms of the level reached by students on scientific competences, which are at minimum level.

Illustration 1
Results of the diagnostic test.
Source: compiled by the authors (2020).

When the didactic unit was applied to the students in the experimental group, students displayed openness, enthusiasm and dynamism in the classroom, they were active actors in the teaching-learning process. Evidently, each step of the PBL gave students the necessary elements to respond to the suggested problem.

The post-test for both groups determined that after the implementation of the didactic unit, the experimental group made significant progress in content appropriation, being able to apply it in problems, thus enhancing the level of scientific competences.

Illustration 2.
Correct responses in the post-test, control vs experimental group
Source: compiled by the authors (2020).

This illustration demonstrates great progress reflected in a difference in the means of the pre-test and the post-test. This is summed up as a positive variation for the experimental group in terms of scientific competences (associated with the implementation of the PBL strategy), which addresses the significance of collaborative work and investigation, resulting in more trust in the students’ knowledge and concepts (such as selection, search, organization and analysis of information they can access).

Likewise, it is important to add that the processes that took place until the implementation of the PBL were simultaneously conducted in both groups, i.e., work was done traditionally in a master class, yet virtually due to the contingency of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Illustration 3
Correct answers by students in the experimental group, pre-test vs. post-test.
Source: compiled by the authors (2020).

Illustration 3 reveals the progress between the implementation of the pre-test and post-test instruments after the intervention of the PBL strategy had concluded; the strategy led to more awareness in the work pertaining to the development of competences, in particular of scientific competences for natural sciences. Based on what was proposed, the control and experimental groups’ progress following the intervention with the PBL strategy can be acknowledged, as seen in Illustration 4.

Accordingly, PBL allowed students to undertake work that was guided, organized and pertinent, since the topic of the respiratory system was addressed with a contextualized approach in which students became active subjects of their training and academic progress.

Correct responses in the post-test, control vs experimental group.
Source: compiled by the authors (2020).

Finally, the pre-test and post-test analysis of the control group revealed that there were no changes in the process related to scientific competences, which is exemplified in Illustration 5.

Illustration 5.
Correct responses in the pre and post-test, control group.
Source: compiled by the authors (2020).

DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS

Applying pre-tests and post-tests provides relevant information to intervene a social group and to adequately analyze it, in other words, the tests allow to recognize and identify students’ needs and level when addressing the topic suggested alongside the implementation of the PBL.

PBL provides greater problem-solving possibilities to students, helps them use knowledge in context and develop autodidactic skills because the methodology aims to connect context and proposed problems, and to turn students into active subjects of the training process.

PBL can be used as a strategy to transform traditional education and to assign a more active role to students within their own training process. PBL is an innovative process that goes beyond master class teaching, in it, students face real problems that generate solutions based on their prior knowledge.

It is essential to contextualize classes with students’ realities, not just to achieve meaningful learning, but to awaken their interest and curiosity. This factor is seminal for students to make progress in their training process because encouragement is an intrinsic part of learning and teaching, if students are motivated then they will be able to articulate their ideas with contextualized learning.

Following this strategy’s eight steps enables strengthening students’ scientific competences, moreover, it may help develop other skills, such as interpretation, proposition and metacognitive skills and an array of others that build the core of the curriculum.

In order to validate and acknowledge the efficiency of the PBL methodology in developing scientific competences, it is important to implement the proposal in the control group, with the objective of giving the opportunity to both groups to boost scientific competences and make advancements in that process in the fifth grade, with their eyes set on their upcoming academic process in high school.

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