Recognition and Realisation Rules in Acquiring School Science--the contributions of pedagogy and social background of students.

The article investigates the difficulties students encounter in problem solving in the area of sciences. The aim of the study is to see the extent to which the students have recognition and realisation rules in the micro-context of problem solving and to find out the reasons which may underlie their difficulties. Thus the data obtained are related to social class, race and gender and also to pedagogic practices and school science achievement in high level cognitive competencies. They are also related to children`s cognitive level. The sample was made up of 80 students equally distributed throughout four classes in the fifth and sixth years of schooling, taught by the same teacher in the subject natural sciences. The school contains a fundamentally working-class population of white and black children, and is located in a suburban area of Lisbon, Portugal. To have heterogeneous classes was the main criterion for organising the four groups of pupils. Each one of the classes was organised to have an equal number of girls and boys.