The study of science requires resources that are not always available, therefore, finding the way that allows training based on experimental facts and scientific observation in students is a real challenge.
This is evidenced in the results of work for thirty-seven years in Youth and Adult Education of one of the authors of the work, whose experience is offered. In order to train teachers to promote economic culture through the Chemistry subject, renovating and contextualized alternatives are offered as a guide for teachers, which contains the use of the potential of the subject's contents, the collaboration of students, the family and the community in the search for chemical reagents and in the replacement of laboratory tools and construction of simple equipment, in addition, a redesign of the schedule of practical activities in the units that the programs contemplate is offered, which influences the operation of Chemistry laboratories,and saving the budget allocated through the substitutions offered. The foundations of the dialectical-materialist conception are assumed in the application of methods and techniques of the theoretical and empirical level, and of mathematical processing.
INTRODUCTION:
The economy today has a transcendental importance in the life of society in general; and in the Cuban, in particular. The economic battle we are facing must be established as the central axis of the definitive transformation of wrongly rooted approaches and behaviors, through a profound process that involves everyone.
The National Education System, with all its institutions and personnel, has an essential role in the formation and development of a correct and coherent economic culture of the Cuban population, since it is within it where the formation of the new generations with the full range of values that society needs and demands.
It is possible to develop in students, from the first semesters of the different levels in Youth and Adult Education, a sufficient accumulation of knowledge that allows them to properly venture into issues related to the economic life of the country, focusing attention on the saving human, material and financial resources, but for this it is necessary to train teachers on these issues.
In the municipality of Primero de Enero, Youth and Adult Education is integrated into a Unified Center in which courses are taught by encounters in Worker and Peasant Education (EOC), Worker and Peasant High School (SOC) and Worker and Peasant Faculty (FOC), and care for illiterate people.
The analysis carried out by the authors, on the basis of the personal experience of one of them for 37 years in Youth and Adult Education, the exchange with specialists, the bibliographic study, the participation in national and international events, favor enter the study for the training of teachers in the empowerment of economic culture through the Chemistry subject, and reveal a significant and important group of potentialities and problems, among which are included:
Potentialities: the members of the Board of Directors are master's degrees, one of which is a Doctor of Pedagogy Candidate, the teaching staff made up of hired professors have extensive experience, and the disposition, motivation, interest and unity of the workforce in promoting activities and fulfillment of tasks that require collective effort.
Problems: there are insufficient materials, which limit the realization of practical activities in the Chemistry subject, teachers lack sources to find information and ideas for carrying out practical activities, the Heads of Departments are limited in a methodological guide for the preparation of the teaching staff, and the use of the potential of the students is insufficient due to the heterogeneity of their work centers, with the participation of the family and the community.
The expressed needs allow us to determine the following scientific problem: how to contribute to the training of teachers to enhance the economic culture in the students of the Youth and Adult Education centers through the Chemistry subject?
The objective of the research is: to propose a training guide aimed at teachers to promote the economic culture in students of Youth and Adult Education centers through the Chemistry subject.
In the investigative process, a system of educational research methods and techniques was used, which constituted the starting point to objectively establish the needs, interests and evaluations of the people involved and their assessment of the effectiveness of the actions in the municipality January 1st: theoretical level methods, empirical level methods and mathematical processing methods.
The novelty of the work is distinguished by offering a training guide, which constitutes a consultation manual for professionals, managers and teachers, with the contents aimed at the preparation of teachers who teach the Chemistry subject and a methodological guide for the Head of Department for this purpose.
DEVELOPING:
The training of teachers will allow to achieve the objectives of teaching this subject. That is why this guide contains the purposes it pursues:
- Offer teachers of the subject a source where they can find information and ideas to carry out practical activities based on the construction of simple laboratory tools Offer a methodological guide for the preparation of teaching staff who teach the subject Strengthen the economic, saving and producer awareness in teachers and students Help adult schools to better prepare their students for the teaching of Chemistry Offer a guide that can be adapted to the available resources at the school and in the territory where it is located.
In order to achieve in a consistent, achievable and verifiable way the training of teachers to enhance economic awareness from the subject of Chemistry in the centers of Youth and Adult Education, topics to be developed in workshops are required, which are expressed as follows:
Workshop 1. Economic culture and its empowerment in Youth and Adult Education.
Dr. Olga Rosa Cabrera Elejalde (2006) defines economic culture as: “The complex system of social interactions that are established in the production process of material goods and services, in a specific historical context, which transcends all human activity, and is revealed through knowledge, modes of action, includes the skills and abilities acquired in the process of development and human enrichment, and is expressed in the creation and conservation of material values in close relationship with ethical and economic values and spiritual, in general ”.
Translated to the individual level: “having an economic culture means assessing efforts, assessing the impact of the use of resources, anticipating the domestic (family) economy, as well as the social economy, being aware that it is not possible to spend more than that you enter and that things do not come out of nowhere; it is to have the conviction that wealth emerges only from work, it is to know how the world economy moves, in short, it is to be aware of everything that affects the economic well-being of society ”.
In a more plain and simple way, economic culture could be defined as the set of knowledge that allows the individual to develop their critical judgment on issues related to the economy. In schools and other educational institutions, managers and teachers will be the main subjects for the formation of economic culture in students.
In social practice there are problems related to the irrational use of human, material and financial resources; the lack of care and control of the media that are in the custody of each group of workers. Educational activity is not an exception in this regard, it is especially evident in the lack of care of the facilities, furniture, textbooks and notebooks, etc., as well as wasteful habits and the habit of consuming on the sidelines of the assigned assets.
Every year the State allocates billions of pesos to cover the expenses of the education sector, and of these, about 50% to the expenses of goods and services and other current transfers, which represents a high percentage of the total expenses of the country's budgeted activity.
The introduction to the study of science in a massive way requires resources that are not always available. Therefore, finding a way to offer training based not only on theory, but also on experimental facts, which also allows students to carry out scientific observation, constitutes a real challenge, for this reason a study that enriches the ways of working to promote coherent, dynamic and harmonious participation between the school, the family and the community.
Workshop 2. Taking advantage of the potential of the contents of the Chemistry subject.
The polytechnic nature of the Chemistry subject allows through the contents of the programs to enhance the economic culture of students through:
. approach given to the study of the subject and experimental activities, linking knowledge with life, exemplifying its application in the satisfaction of human needs, application of measures to protect the environment and individual and collective responsibility in the care and preservation of the school, community and country environment, the rational use of energy resources, as well as the use of alternative sources of energy.
. the role played by Chemistry in the development of different Cuban industries, such as pharmaceuticals, sugar, fertilizers, the metallurgical industry of nickel and cobalt compounds and its importance in the Cuban economy, as well as the development of the search of new deposits, the applications of metals and alloys determined by their properties, use of alloys instead of metals in their pure state, identification of measures to prevent corrosion of metals, the importance of preventing corrosion of metals and in particular the corrosion of iron for the economy and resolution of problems and calculation exercises, related to the saving of raw materials and fuel, and to industrial development.
- Enthalpy variation during a chemical process, which has a direct relationship with the amount of substance transformed and, therefore, this explains that energy must be saved to prevent its demand from rising, which would imply burning more fuel. importance of the factors influencing the speed of a chemical reaction and the use of catalysts in industrial processes Importance of electrolytic processes in industry and the need to save electrical energy and the importance of the Le Chatelier-Braun principle in processes The reactions that take place between substances in solution and their application in agriculture, in organisms and in the air, importance of pH in industry, health and agriculture The redox system to produce electrical energy,and the importance of predicting the occurrence or not of a redox chemical reaction, the applications of inorganic and organic substances, the use of laboratory tools and chemical substances, taking into account the precautionary rules established for their use, as well as the general rules of work in the laboratory and saving resources. awareness of knowing and complying with safety, hygiene and disciplinary measures, in order to obtain good results, save reagents and energy and avoid unfortunate accidents.as well as the general rules of work in the laboratory and saving resources. The awareness of knowing and complying with safety, hygiene and disciplinary measures, in order to obtain good results, save reagents and energy and avoid unfortunate accidents.as well as the general rules of work in the laboratory and saving resources. The awareness of knowing and complying with safety, hygiene and disciplinary measures, in order to obtain good results, save reagents and energy and avoid unfortunate accidents.
Workshop 3. Creation of work teams.
In the first meeting, the professor creates the work teams with the students, whose functions will be to search for reagents and materials for the construction of laboratory tools and simple devices.
These teams will coincide to carry out practical activities according to the planned schedule during the semester and also for other teaching activities.
The affinities and interests of the students will be taken into account to form the teams, in the event that it is difficult, the teacher can form them in consecutive order of the attendance record, these teams should not exceed five members to facilitate the work.
If the group's enrollment does not vary, the team can maintain itself and continue through the following semesters, provided that the criteria and results of the students are respected.
Workshop 4. Creation of a material bank.
One of the great problems of experimentation at any level is the lack of teaching means, but creativity and persistence can overcome most of the obstacles and show that when you want you can.
Being experimental students by natural disposition, it is easy to motivate them to search for materials, and the construction of laboratory tools, which will serve them to carry out practical activities, which allows them to enhance their role.
It is essential that from the first day of classes, the teacher informs the students of the practical activities scheduled during the course, the necessary reagents and the materials required for the construction of the necessary tools and the creation of the bank begins of materials, in order to collect what is necessary and because of the importance that it requires from an educational point of view.
For the successful development of the schedule of practical activities, it is suggested to ensure the material resources to be used in each of them in advance of their application. These materials can be: wood, cardboard, cardboard and plywood trimmings, wires, disposable cups, disposable plastic spoons, glass containers, disposable plastic containers, insemination rods, serum kits, plastic stirrers, light bulbs, etc.
Workshop 5. Collaboration of students, family and community in the search for chemical reagents.
If the school does not have any reagent to carry out an experiment, these are requested from students and relatives given the heterogeneity of their work centers, in other cases if the reagent is expensive it must be replaced by another, taking care that it is fulfilled the goal of the scheduled experiment.
You can agree with the staff of some work centers in the community to request reagents lacking in the school, in our case with the sugar mill, board factory, torula plant, asphalt plant, ice plant, bakery, candy store, etc.
They are easily acquired chemical reagents and their orders in mass and volume are small that do not affect the donor, these can be: refined or raw sugar, eggshells and marble, salfumán, accumulator acid, lime, caustic soda, potash, salt Common, vinegar, charcoal, stone charcoal, 90% alcohol, kerosene, lubricating oil, vegetable oil, bicarbonate, paraffin, beeswax, starch, castile flour, sawdust, earth, sand, metals such as aluminum, zinc, iron, lead, copper, tin, etc.
The names mentioned above are the common ones, from the knowledge of the population, which will be promoted in the school with their chemical names to the students.
Workshop 6. Linking the school, family and community in the replacement of laboratory supplies and simple equipment.
A statistical analysis of the cost for the assembly of the Chemistry laboratory with the necessary laboratory tools, allowed to determine that it is necessary to invest 3,541.10 pesos in national currency.
For the development of practical activities, it is necessary (among others): support ring, stirrers, burette, distillation flask, glass flasks, porcelain crucible and capsule, graduated glass, condenser, spatula, separating funnel, Erlenmeyer flask, dropper bottles, volumetric flask, tweezers, rack, graduated cylinder, test tubes, electrolysis tube, tripod, asbestos cloth, porcelain triangle, scales, glass funnel, pipette, universal holder, watch glass, thermometer, beaker, flask for reagents, swabs, alcohol lamp, mortar, filter paper, droppers and kitasato.
These laboratory tools are scarce in the centers of Youth and Adult Education, for this reason the teacher needs to replace them and must bear in mind that to develop the chemical performance of the students, use sheets with the real tools, rely on the television broadcast with educational purposes and information technology such as educational software, Encarta, among others.
For this purpose, it will rely on the bank of materials created in the school.
Examples of substitutions for laboratory tools.
Thermal sources: old electric iron, electric stove resistance, alcohol burner, gas burner, Tripod: welded wire rod, coarse twisted wire, prepared tin can, Beakers or beakers: wide-mouth glass jars, disposable plastic containers of different sizes, Agitators: tourism agitator, insemination rod, Spatula: disposable plastic spoons, Test tubes: glass syringes, fluorescent tubes, Test tubes: penicillin vials, L-tubes: Plastic absorbent or insemination rods, Connectors: serum hoses, Crucibles: disposable beer and soda cans, bitumen box lid, Balls: incandescent bulbs, Rubber stoppers: polyfoam stoppers, corks, disposable rubber flip-flops, Indicator papers: newsprint impregnated with marpacific flower tincture (in a basic medium it takes on a green color and in an acid medium it takes a red color)
Alcohol or mercury thermometer: qualitative gas thermometer.
Droppers: plastic dropper bottles for eye drops or droppers from serum kits, Test tube clamps: wire and sheet, Universal metal bracket: wooden bracket, Funnels: serum equipment droppers, plastic bottles, For the construction of replacements for laboratory supplies and simple equipment, the teacher can rely on:
- Student teams Labor Education Workshops Students' parents Community job centers
Workshop 7. Use of small samples and concentrations without affecting the quality of the experiment and the explanation to the student of this measure.
Chemistry is one of the most expensive subjects in schools, the economy in the laboratory is also affected in the amount of reagents used, almost always a few milliliters are enough to do a test.
A large part of the reagents used in the laboratory are in the form of solutions, generally aqueous, although there are also solutions made up of other solvents or mixtures of them. For many purposes, such as common laboratory tests, the exact value of the concentration is not of paramount importance, for this reason little concentrated solutions can be prepared, in such a way that the solute is saved.
It is necessary to explain to the student so that he understands, the causes of these rationalizations.
Workshop 8. Redesign of the schedule of practical activities.
It is necessary to draw up a schedule with the practical activities to be carried out by units, adapted to the semesters of the levels of Youth and Adult Education and their conditions and possibilities, which contains the substitutions of the activities, laboratory supplies and in the that readily available reagents are included, without affecting the quality of the expected results.
Below is an example of two units in 10th grade or the semester equivalents of FOC.
Unit 1: The thermochemical and kinetic behavior of chemical processes:
Exothermic and endothermic chemical reactions: Reaction of hydrochloric acid with zinc metal and sodium hydrogen carbonate.
The speed of chemical reactions: Iron metal oxidation; burning of a candle; reaction of sodium hydroxide and copper sulfate; reaction of hydrochloric acid and zinc metal.
Factors influencing the speed of chemical reactions: concentrated and dilute hydrochloric acid; zinc metal in shot and powder; calcium carbonate powder and pieces of marble.
Influence of temperature and concentration on the speed of a reaction. Catalysis.
Unit 2: Non-metals.
Physical and chemical properties of some non-metals: octa-sulfur, dihydrogen, diiodo, carbon.
Obtaining, physical and chemical properties of dihydrogen.
Physical and chemical properties of water.
Obtaining and solubility of hydrogen chloride.
Chemical properties of hydrochloric acid, sulfuric acid and nitric acid.
Results.
The application of the procedures to evaluate the results within the research development process, constituted a first step of its effectiveness, because it allowed to assess from qualitative-quantitative positions:
- raising awareness of the importance and need for alternatives to enhance the economic culture and the unity of those involved for its effectiveness, by recognizing the potential of teachers, students, family and community in schools of Youth and Adult Education. strengthening of economic, savings and producer awareness in students and teachers a methodological guide for the Heads of Departments that serves for the training of teaching staff who teach the subject Chemistry and other sciences a reference manual aimed at professionals, managers and teachers, with the contents aimed at promoting economic culture, which can be adapted according to the resources available at the school and in the territory where it is located.the setting up and operation of a Chemistry minilaboratory, unique in the Ciego de Ávila province, which has made it possible to achieve the objectives of teaching this subject for several decades.
CONCLUSIONS.
The analysis of the theoretical study allows to base the empowerment of the economic culture, which contributes to the search for solutions to train teachers and to seek reflection, participation, joint effort and consensus of managers, educators, students, families and the community to respond to the demands demanded by society.
The information collected through the study of different sources and the findings found in pedagogical practice with the use of different methods, make it possible to ensure the need for training of teachers on issues related to the empowerment of economic culture in students.
The proposal was developed based on the potentialities and shortcomings that were revealed in the diagnosis stage and the systematization of its foundations, which led to the development of a training guide aimed at professionals, managers and teachers of the centers of the Youth and Adult Education, which is based on the topics of the preparation workshops to enhance economic culture through the Chemistry subject.
The application of the procedures and the general conception for the evaluation of the results within the research development process, is considered effective, because it allowed, from qualitative-quantitative positions, to assess the proposed guide and the transformations of the procedures of those involved; As well as the meaning of its implications to enhance economic culture, it shows its potential for achieving positive transformations in the work of teachers, a statement corroborated during the research.
BIBLIOGRAPHY.
- CABRERA ELEJALDE, OR (2006). "Professional improvement for the appropriation of economic culture by teachers of the Faculty of Teacher Training for Upper Secondary Education", thesis as an option for the Scientific Degree of Doctor of Pedagogical Sciences, Enrique José Varona Higher Pedagogical Institute, Havana. CASTRO RUZ, R. (2005). Appearance at the Round Table of Cuban TV, November 23, 2005, published in Granma Newspaper on November 24 DEL REAL HERNÁNDEZ, JR (s / a). Youth and Adult Education. Realities and perspectives. Chair of Literacy and Education for Young People and Adults. IPLAC. Havana. “The strengthening of the general economic culture in the students”, (2011) Brochure of the Directorate of Logistics of the MINED, Havana.GRAU CAIRO, L. Y COL. (1982). Organization,fundamental management and operations in the Chemistry laboratory. Ed. People and Education, Havana.DEL REAL HERNÁNDEZ, JR (s / a). Youth and Adult Education. Realities and perspectives. Chair of Literacy and Education for Young People and Adults. IPLAC. Havana. Guidelines for the Economic and Social Policy of the Party and the Revolution, approved at the VI Congress of the Communist Party of Cuba. Draft Guidelines for the Economic and Social Policy of the Party and the Revolution. Regulation of Law No. 107 / 09 of the Office of the Comptroller General of the Republic of Cuba. Resolution 60-11: "On the Rules of the Internal Control System." RODRÍGUEZ MARÍN, R. (2009). “The development of the economic culture of teachers and cadres. An experience of the University of Pedagogical Sciences "Félix Varela", [email protected]/,Friday, January 9, 2009.
