A proposal to facilitate learning of procedural contents

As learning objectives experimental procedures are essential in the constructivist model of science teaching learning, although their treatment is somewhat uncertain since there are no clear and well defined instructional methods in this area. In this paper we clearly distinguish between scientific procedures and procedural contents and we suggest the didactical laboratory as the most important instructional resource to facilitate the learning of such contents. We propose an instructional model for practical activities designed as "small scale investigations"which provides guidance for the teaching/learning process of procedural contents of the physics and chemistry curriculum for the 16-18 years age range. We also propose a specific method for the evaluation of learning outcomes.