Tools of mediation and scientific concept learning through the lens of Galperin / Herramientas de mediación y aprendizaje de conceptos científicos a través de la lente de Galperin

Abstract

We argue on the role played by tools of mediation in scientific concept formation as an important issue to develop conceptual and scientific thinking and to make students aware of phenomena and socioscientific issues. Different forms of semiotic materialization of actions carried out in external and internal planes of human activity can improve students’ learning, intellectual development and constitution of personality. In the external plane, actions can be guided by a Scheme for a Complete Orienting Basis of an Action (SCOBA) to make mediation between content and forms of the object, involving logical, necessary and essential procedures to organize the teaching and learning process. In the internal (mental) level, these actions turn into signs, symbols and tools of mediation, as senses expressed by the students, that face socially shared meanings for scientific concepts, engaging them in a meaning-making process. Actions and discourses are mediators leading students to engage in activities and develop skills that favour awareness and learning processes, involving three moments: orientation for actions, execution of actions and control/regulation of learning.