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International Journal of Science Education
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Strategies for analyzing the effectiveness of the teaching sequence 
It is no easy task to analyze the effectiveness of a teaching sequence considering how complex the 
educational process is, with the many interacting variables related to the content to be taught, to the 
characteristics of the students, the group-class, and the teacher, to the sociocultural context, etc. As the 
present case corresponded to the first steps of an innovatory teaching sequence, we decided to centre the 
analysis of its effectiveness on: 
1.
Evaluating the levels of knowledge of semiconductor physics acquired by the students in terms of the 
predicted learning objectives. In our opinion, this would give an idea of what SE students are capable of 
learning about semiconductor physics through the designed teaching sequence. 
2.
Identifying the students' commonest learning obstacles with respect to the topic. The psychology of 
learning tells us that scientific reasoning does not seem to be the natural form in which people tackle 
their daily problems (Pozo & Gómez Crespo, 1998). Many of the students' intuitive ideas are usually 
developed at a very early age, generally before the learning of scientific notions begins (Rodríguez-
Moneo & Aparicio, 2004). Therefore, these ideas are usually strongly rooted, and in many cases 
constitute true obstacles against learning science (Criado & Cañal, 2003). In the context of teaching 
models such as the one we are proposing, in which the students themselves are considered to 
construct their own knowledge from their interactions with the teacher and classmates [the 'socio-
constructivist' model], the identification of these obstacles is fundamental for the progressive 
improvement of a teaching sequence. In this regard, Martinand (1983; cited in Gómez-Molinély & 
Sanmartí, 2002, p. 63) suggests that if learning consists of overcoming the obstacles that one 
encounters while learning new ideas then these obstacles have to be explicitly targeted in teaching 
those ideas. From this perspective, Martinand introduces the concept of 'obstacle-objective', 
differentiating it from the classical concept of objective. He thinks that the true objectives in teaching 
science can not be defined a priori and independently of the students' conceptions, but will consist of 
strategies directed at overcoming the obstacles that are detected. Therefore, the identification of the 
students' learning obstacles with respect to semiconductors will be an important indicator as to which 
learning objectives will have to be reformulated to improve the effectiveness of the teaching sequence in 
future actions. 
3.
Determining the attitudes that the students develop towards semiconductor physics and its learning. It 
seems evident that if the teaching sequence can arouse the students' interest in the topic —whether 
from the scientific content being studied, from the manner in which it is approached in class, or both— 
then this will be more favourable for the learning process. 
4.
Assessing to what extent the teaching sequence fosters the students' self-regulation of their learning. In 
agreement with Millar (1989) and Viennot and Rainson (1999), in teaching science one must not only 
pay attention to what to teach, but also to how to teach. In this sense, we think that a good indicator of 
the effectiveness of a teaching sequence is the [qualitative] measure to which it encourages the 
students to learn to regulate their own learning. Indeed, self-regulation of learning is today conceived of 
as a fundamental practice for the meaningful learning of science (e.g., Schraw & Brooks, 1999). And, in 
addition to the teacher's interventions and interactions between the students, this practice can be 
helped by a suitable design and organization of the activities within the sequence. 
In order to analyze the above aspects, we used a variety of research procedures and instruments, as it will 
be seen below.