Conectamos investigación y práctica docente con el análisis del diseño de una secuencia que integra la contextualización, indagación, modelización y la evaluación de su efectividad desde las ideas del alumnado que moviliza. La metodología cualitativo-interpretativa utilizada permite analizar la práctica docente y los resultados muestran que la contextualización en un problema cercano (muerte de peces y algas en la playa) genera en los estudiantes diversidad de explicaciones sobre las posibles causas y coherencia en qué pruebas necesitarían para demostrarlas o refutarlas. La búsqueda de pruebas para detectar la auténtica causa de la muerte, en este caso por deshidratación, ofrece conocimiento descriptivo que condiciona sus explicaciones, necesarias para que el modelo de simulación diseñado de ósmosis tenga sentido para el alumnado y les sea de utilidad para transferir a otros contextos.
In a previous study we detected that a number of inquiry stages (data collection, analysis and conclusions) went unnoticed by the students of an in situ joint online/onsite master’s degree via online teaching. In this paper we analyse the effect of improved instruction, in which students fully experienced and became aware of all the stages that comprise the inquiry-based teaching approach. In the article we show the differences between the initial and improved instruction. The comparison of student comments as exhibited in the online class diary forum between the initial and improved instruction has allowed us to analyse the influence of this improvement in the level of depth of the students’ discourse. Two codings have been employed to analyse the forums: the first (deductive) detected which stages of inquiry appeared in the comments. The second (inductive) involved the recoding of each of the previously classified comments based on five levels of communicative quality that emerged. Our main finding was that as well as being more aware of the different stages of inquiry, the students of the improved investigation were able to explain and identify them with specific examples. In other words, the investment of time in developing each of the stages in question helped them to define, afford reality to, and increase the explicative quality of their comments.
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