Evaluating Resources for Scientific Modelling in a Distance Education Course

This research evaluates the contribution of different strategies planned for a distance education course on astronomy, designed for teachers, especially during a topic where the goal was the dynamic model of the Earth's orbit. Methodology was analysis of the written discourse of participants, collected from the virtual learning environment of the course. Using a socio-constructivist framework, we searched for elements of model usage in students' accounts on the theme, and attempted to connect this process with the resources used. Findings compare accounts and learning results from different versions of the course, when new resources were gradually inserted. Conclusions are that varied course resources can be of benefit to the pedagogical communication, providing: more precise vocabulary; better understanding of the problem; a more concrete picture to relate with; construction of elements of the solution. However, consolidation of learning happens through students-tutor interaction and this activity could not be replaced, in the course analyzed, by as varied as the resources could be. As much as our desire to make the course as flexible as possible to provide opportunity for teachers throughout the country to enroll, our results indicate that pure online interactions appear to be insufficient to teach a scientific model, as best results were only obtained when a face-to-face encounter was added to the course plan. (C) 2014 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.