“A didactical approach of large-scale electricity generation
systems at the elementary school level”
ABSTRACT
This work refers to the organising principles and content of
a didactical intervention (addresses to children aged 11-12) related to the
concept of energy on large- scale electricity generation systems
(thermoelectric power plants, hydroelectric power plants, wind farms,
photovoltaic farms). These organising principles refer to: (a) the structure
and the content of school knowledge of the teaching subject where we
distinguish four levels of approach: the phenomenological, the technological, the
scientific and the environmental level, (b) the constructivist approach of
teaching and learning science which is based on the assumptions that children
in the age of 11-12 years using the linear causal reasoning and the systemic
thinking will be able to construct a semi-quantitative energy model that is
proper to the description and the explanation of large-scale electricity
generation systems, and (c) the pedagogical context based on the practice of
problem situations and the socio-cognitive approach of teaching. There will
also be presented the didactical aims and some elements of the content of
didactical intervention which derive from the basic organising principles above
mentioned.
