Models of Social Constructivism, Laboratory Teaching and Concept Maps to Build Scientific Knowledge and Organize Concept Network -Teaching Experiences in First Level Education in Italian Schools

Through the various experiences described by a group of teachers involved in an innovative project about science teaching, this paper aims to show how some students, 6- 13 year olds, when given the opportunity to live and operate in a particularly stimulating and significant learning environment, are able to gain knowledge via constructive processes. While social constructivism provides reference guidelines in educational-teaching practices, concept maps are a tool used to promote, organize and synthesize acquired knowledge, while meditating on thinking operations. Teaching action is situated in significant operative contexts, in which students are driven to ask questions, make hypotheses, analyze facts, make connections, verify ideas, and create concepts. A science laboratory is a cognitive space where answers can be found to multiple questions and issues derived from observation of scientific phenomena. Teachers are aware that knowledge is not transmitted, it is built by students. Knowledge building is not a lonely, individual operation, it is a process created by sharing experiences and discovering meanings together with peers and teachers. Concept maps accompany all stages of knowledge building and are an effective teaching instrument to strengthen cognitive and metacognitive strategies, helping students to build a structured, significant knowledge network.