Investigating the significance of problems in Inquiry-based Sequence Teaching

Science Education researchers have proposed the use of problems in instructional activities as an important element for establishment of students' scientific thinking, but just a few researchers have sought to study specifically the process of meaning problems. Thus, to investigate theoretically the significance of problems inquiry-based teaching, we sought some contributions from the historical-cultural perspective, especially Vygotsky's studies, to analyze the nature of the problem, its role and function in Inquiry-based Sequence Teaching (IBST) and their relations with Vygotskyan ideas. We proposed that the notion of problem in a perspective of Scientific Literacy consider relations among scientific concepts, scientific practices and mutual influences among science, technology and society. In the context of IBST, these problems appear in two distinct but complementary ways: didactic problems and new problems. It was identified that the didactic problems assume different functions during planning and carrying out and IBST and that the act to propose problems around the same phenomena prompt the emergence of new mediating problems. We argued that these new problems can found the process of signification in inquiry based lessons, because of their relations with the Vygotsky’s signifying elements, becoming Potential Significant Problems