Propuesta de enseñanza de la biodiversidad en la educación básica basada en el aprendizaje por descubrimiento

The objective of this research was to evaluate the influence of teaching by discovery on the learning of biodiversity in high school students, as well as their motivation for the observation and study of biodiversity in their ecological and social environment. First grade students from a general high school in the state of Jalisco, Mexico participated. In order to learn about biodiversity, insects were collected and preserved in an entomological collection. A quasi-experimental design was used with an experimental group and a control group, under a pre-test-intervention-post-test (A-B-A) scheme. The influence of teaching by discovery on student learning was evaluated by means of various instruments and statistical tests. The results show that the experimental group, in which the discovery teaching strategy was applied, had significantly better results in the post-test than the control group, in which the topic of biodiversity was reviewed with traditional didactic techniques. In addition, an outstanding motivation was achieved in the students of the experimental group through observation and study in their ecological and social environment.