Abstract

In our knowledge society (UNESCO, 2005), it is crucial that citizens possess the competences to critically question and argue and ultimately develop scientific literacy. Contemporary society is characterised by fast and complex change processes covering all spheres of social activity. Consequently, learning should also be seen as a process of change. However, in a society rapidly changing and requiring informed citizens, “the educational system has not changed at all” (Correia et al., 2010, p. 678). In this paper we describe in detail the teaching, learning and assessment strategies designed and implemented in a first year Chemistry course, at the University of Aveiro, in Portugal. This course is meant for Science and Engineering students, and it was conceived in order to develop students’ questioning competences. The assessment strategies were aligned with the teaching and learning strategies. The results are presented according to the students’ questions frequency, cognitive level, relationship with the problem and orientation to the problem. Even though the questions raised were consistently basic questions, these are encouraging results, since these assessment tasks were new for the students.