Educational models in academic research on the teaching practices in science education in elementary school

We intended to identify the features and pedagogical trends of the school practices proposed and implemented in thesis and dissertations directed to science education at elementary school level from 1972 to 2005. Thirty studies were analysed regarding the teaching methodology, instructional resources, teacher-student relationships, evaluation, theoretical framework, and educational model (traditional, rediscovery, constructivist, technicist, STS, socio-cultural). We found that the constructivist model was dominant (63%), followed by the socio-cultural (20%) and the rediscovery one (10%), and that the pedagogical practices were elaborated by researchers, applied by teachers and performed by students, showing a vertical hierarchy between university and school. However, the implemented practices (actual level) usually were quite distant from the researchers discourse (proposed level). We also observed that the researchers didn’t find many difficulties in designing and applying a pedagogical proposal with innovative features, but to make changes in the school and social relations, as well as in the evaluation practices, is a barrier difficult to overcome.