Educação científica no contexto pós-ontológico: por uma concepção plural de conhecimento e educação

The development of this work arises from the research of sociological and philosophical characters contemplating also other approaches which aims to answer the followingquestions: what is the responsibility of science teaching for the image one has about science? ; which scientific education should be designed for nowadays? . After considering the assumptions brought along by rationalism and the criticisms to the illuminist model proposed by sociology and philosophy of science, as well by the biology of the knowing process, going through discussions concerning post-modernity issues, one is given to understand that the image of science has become the central point of discussion in the last hundred years, including what concerns the area of science teaching, and that practically none of those discussions really reached natural science classes indeed. We adopt the term postontological to characterize the recent proposals on philosophy and sociology, because we evaluate that this term allows a better identification of the scientific realism crisis, which supports the existence of an ontological domain which science, and only science, is able to understand. One notices that the general public is not aware of those discussions, mainly if they are science teachers and students. So we believe that discussing the logic in which science is structured, the new understandings concerning the scientific undertaking, especially those of an externalist character, and the relationship between science and society, all of this contributes to build up a science teaching which contemplates a reflective contribution, besides allowing the inclusion of the study of other epistemologies in the educational practice. We argue that a revisionist posture seems to be the most appropriate for the contemporary scientific education, contemplating, besides the teaching of the usual science contents, discussions on the issues involving that knowledge, as well as respecting epistemologies alternative to the modern Western scientific one, in order one can work on the perception of local knowledge generated from other epistemological bases. We describe here practical activities we did involving teachers (short-term courses) and high-school students in an inland school in the Rio Grande do Norte state, in Brazil, as a way to demonstrate the possibility of interventions which can take those conceptions, discussions and changes to the classroom

O discurso formativo do Biólogo sobre a morte: matizes e metáforas do saber que o sujeito não deseja saber

This study - Biologist s formative speech about death. Nuances and metaphors from knowing that the subject of do not want to know - shows a marginal cognitive construction in scientific education from biologist - death. It considered as obvious that death is a theme that covers both the scientific education from biologist and the division of the subject, and concerns the splitting of the double life-death and the principles of inclusion and exclusion of the subject. Part of sensitive question: What is the epistemological weave who supports biologist's speech about death? It is constituted an object of study of the biologist s speech on death. It is advocated the thesis that: Death is an epistemological obstacle announcing for something always aims to escape from the perspective of knowledge, especially of scientific knowledge because, since it is understood as cognitive learning about the disruption of biological phenomenon life which is involved on weave of imaginary and symbolic constructions about the finiteness of life; it has constituted a metaphorical knowing - encouraged by the noisy silence - which does not allow to know in full, mobilizing hence subject in searching for transitional truths that reduce the ontological being-mortal anguish centered in subjective dimension involved in the act of knowing. From this movement of search that the object mental life after death wins a symbolic value that requires a real-looking multi-referential for the study of biology - life - and its implications: the finiteness of life, especially by moving the omnipotence of scientific objectivity expressed by signs and symbols that seek say the completeness of scientific knowledge-, signaling thus the existence of the dynamics of incompleteness implicit in subjectivity that supports knowledge relating to the double, life and death, and to the temporality of the existence of Homo sapiens sapiens, with the axis guiding the desire of the subject, do not want to know about death, implicit in the mechanisms objective-subjective founded by non-said of death is the epistemology of the existence of objective-subjective subject, whose core is the negation of death. The theoretical methodological knowing web is anchored in the multi-reference which favors a transit by theoretical current, as the Psychoanalysis, bachelardian philosophy, the epistemology of complexity, the Thanatology, the Social Psychology, and Etnocenology, and Understanding Interview. The unveiling of the study object from the analysis of oral speech of eleven biologists who serve in high school, from three main guiding: Death in the history of life,Death in biologist s academic education and, Conceptions about concepts

Professores de ciências naturais: necessidades formativas para ensinar a medir em trabalhos práticos e experimentais

This paper presents a research realized with Physics, Chemistry and Biology teachers, and it aimed to evaluate: 1) the development level of those teachers regarding the abilities that make possible to teach high school students about how to measure in practical and experimental work; 2) the formatives necessities regarding those abilities; and 3) the order of priority for teacher´s formation regarding those abilities. The study is based on the activity theory, from A. N. Leontiev (1983), since we considerer the teacher´s formation a kind of activity for which the category necessity is source of motivation and in which is a necessary condition for professionality and for the professional development. A questionnaire with open and closed questions was applied to 116 teachers during three pedagogic workshops realized to dynamize the science laboratory. The instrument allowed us to obtain the personal and professional profile of the participants, as well as their development level, their formative necessities and their order of priority about the teaching of the abilities related to the work of testing measuring hypothesis, regarding: a) to operationalize variables of a hypothesis in experimental work; b) to measure in practical and experimental work; c) to estimate possible measuring mistakes and use proper procedures to minimize them; d) to estimate the validity of a measuring; and e) to estimate the confiability of a measuring. The research results indicated some limitations of the teachers about their development level in all the analyzed abilities. More than 90% of the teachers considered those deficiencies as necessities of the continuing formation. Most of them (about 54%) expressed immediate priority for formation in each one of the abilities. From a correlation, using the statistic chi-square test, between the development level and the formative necessities for the five abilities, the obtained results allow us to assure that, for all those teaching abilities, there is a strong correlation between the development level and the formative necessity. This situation is symptomatic of the importance of approaching more the science teaching and the teacher´s formation on practical and experimental work in high school as key-component of scientific education in basic education. The obtained results can contribute, as subsidy, for continuing formation courses, having as base the necessities that constitute motivation elements of the teachers for professional development

Literatura de monteiro lobato no ensino de ciências

Advocating education as a humanizing task, the humanizing function of literature and the importance of scientific education, this paper proposes linking Science and Literature in Science Teaching using two specific books of Monteiro Lobato in the final series of elementary school level. Adopting the action research methodology, an interdisciplinary approach, we used the books A Reforma da Natureza and Serões de Dona Benta in two classes (8th and 9th) at Escola Estadual Professor José Mamede, located in the town of Tibau do Sul, Rio Grande do Norte. The readings were performed in Portuguese Language s course and the scientific content were discussed in Science´s classrooms. The book A Reforma da Natureza permitted to approach issues related to the environment, while the use of Serões de Dona Benta showed particularly its effectiveness in questioning the concepts of matter, mass, weight and some questions about the Nature of Science (NOS). In general, the analysis of results shows that the readings of these two books permitted interaction and dialogicity in the classroom, as well as indicates the potential of these books in contextualing and questioning the scientific content contained in it. We advise, however, the need for the science teacher be aware of the conceptual mistakes present in literary works, avoiding erroneous learning and reinforcement of alternative conceptions

Uma abordagem histórica para o ensino do princípio da inércia

Placed in the field of Didactic of Science, this paper proposes an approach to the introduction of the History of Science in science education, at high school level. It was designed and implemented a series of activities regarding the history of the Principle of Inertia. The aim of this approach was to give more meaning to scientific education, while opening new avenues for a better understanding of the processes of construction of scientific knowledge. The preparation of the activities involved a study of the historical development of the concept of motion, from the Aristotelian physics through physical movement concepts at medieval period, from Galileo, Gassendi, Descartes, until the first law of Newton. The strategy of teaching was applied to three classes of high school (night period) of a state public school at the city of Natal (RN). The results indicated the difficulty of overcoming alternative conceptions about movement by students. Nevertheless, we consider that the implementation of this strategy of teaching both represented gains for the learning of students, and contributed to the resizing of pedagogical practices of the teacher-researcher

Controvérsias sobre a natureza da luz: uma aplicação didática

Researches in the field of Science Teaching have shown, in recent decades, that students from high school level have difficulties in understanding basic concepts of science, in general, and physics, in particular. The specific literature indicates, as a priority for a scientific education of better quality, a more structured understanding about science. This work proposes the introduction of elements of History and Philosophy of Science in high school as an aid to learning the concepts of optics, in general, and of aspects concerning the nature of science, specifically. Making use of historical episodes regarding the controversy on the nature of light, especially during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, as well as clippings of the history of optics in relation to the development of models that explain the process of vision, we formulated a teaching unit and implemented it on two night high school classes of a public school in the city of Parnamirim (RN). The unit involved, primarily, the reading of three historical texts containing written questions followed by a collective debate ("moot"). The results indicated some difficulties in overcoming the misconceptions related to the process of vision and the nature of light. Nevertheless, we believe that the teaching unit has succeeded in relation to the learning of most students, both in relation to a better understanding of science as well as concepts of optics

Contribuições do Programa Institucional de Bolsas de Iniciação Científica (PIBIC) para a formação do aluno de psicologia

The undergraduate courses in Psychology have been historically pointed as defective in aspects related to the critical education and the integration between theory and practice. Hence, the scientific education has been considered a possibility to overcome those lacks. Therefore, this study has investigated the undergraduate education process of Psychology students with PIBIC (Portuguese acronym for Undergraduate Scientific Research Scholarships Institutional Program) scholarships from CNPq (Portuguese acronym Brazilian National Council of Scientific and Technological Development). The scholarship program has been a strategic tool for the undergraduate scientific research. Electronic questionnaires have been sent to all the PIBIC scholarship students of Psychology in Brazil (622; 104 have answered), containing questions about the program developed activities, tutoring and advising, PIBIC evaluation and other ones. The students scientific and academic production has also been investigated through their Lattes (CNPq s Platform in which researchers have their academic résumés). The major part of the participants (70%) has stated that the first motivation to be in the program had been their interest in the research or in the academic career. Furthermore, 60% of the scholarship students has worked as volunteers before receiving PIBIC scholarship. Among the students who have answered the research, 65,4% has reported they are tutored directly by their advisors, and 80% of them attends one or more than one advising meeting every fifteen days. It has been identified that the Psychology scholarship students do not participate in all the research activities and that the proximity with the advisor is related to the accomplishment of tasks which contributes with the student critical and reflexive education. Finally, less than 25% of the students has published scientific articles or book chapters during the scholarship, what XI demonstrates a possible exclusion of them in that phase of the process. In general, the scholarship students evaluate the program positively by revealing that it contributes with their professional and academic education. For those reasons, it is observed PIBIC s potential role for the undergraduate education in order to develop more critical psychologists able to propose innovations and contextualized practices. However, the results obtained in programs like the studied one denounce the disqualification of the provided undergraduate education for the major part of the university students, who do not have a PIBIC scholarship. As a result, it is emphasized that it there should be more investment for improving the quality of the undergraduate education itself and not only for programs which are available for few students

Possibilidades de enfoque CTS para o ensino superior de química: proposta de uma abordagem para ácidos e bases

Scientific education has been passing by redefinitions, contestations and new contributions from the research on science teaching. One contribution is the idea of science and technology literacy, allowing the citizens not only knowing science but also understand aspects on the construction and motivation of scientific and technological research. In accordance with this idea, there is the Science-Technology-Society (STS) studies which, since the 1970s, has been contributing for science teaching and learning according to the comprehension of the relationships with society in the Western countries of the North. In Brazil, this approach began to gain projection from the 1990s when the first essays on the theme were published. Currently, there is a clear influence of this approach on the national curriculum guidelines, especially for the area of Natural Sciences, and also on the textbooks chosen by the High School National Program (Programa Nacional do Ensino Médio). However, there seems to be a gap in relation to the discussion on the specific curricular component seen in college on this approach. Thus, this study aims at adopting the approach STS, face to the preparation of complimentary educational material on acid and bases concepts studied in the course of General Chemistry of the Natural Sciences graduation program. To this end, it was performed a bibliographical research aiming at making the state-of-the-art in in these concepts in specific literature to science teaching. It is divided in two stages: systematic study (with sixteen journals chosen according to Qualis-Capes and an unsystematic study with direct search in databases and references in the papers of the systematic study. The studies had their content analyzed and the categories chosen a priori were the level of education, the acid-base theory adopted, and the strategy/theoretical frame of reference adopted. A second stage aimed at identifying attitudes and beliefs on STS (Science-Technology-Society) and CSE (Chemistry-Society-Environment) of students in the teacher and technologist training course in three diferent institutions: UTFPR, UFRN and IFRN. In this study, it was used two questionnaires, composed of a Likert scale, semantic differential scale and open questions. The quantitative data reliability was estimated through Cronbach’s alpha method, and tha data were treated according to classic statistics, using the mean as the centrality measures, and the mean deviation as dispersion. The qualitative data were treated according to the content analysis with categories taken from the reading of answers. In the third stage, it was analyzed the presence of STS and CSE content in chapters on acid and bases concepts of nine General Chemistry textbooks, frequently used in graduation programs in public institutions of the state of Rio Grande do Norte. The results showed that there are few proposals of acid and bases teaching, and they are generally aimed at High School or at instrumentation for teaching courses, and no course for General Chemistry. The student’s attitudes and beliefs show the presence of a positivist point of view based on the concept of Science and Technology neutrality and the salvation of its mediation. The books analysis showed just a few content on STS and CSE are found in the studied chapters, and they are generally presented disjointedly in relation to the rest of the main text. In the end, as suggestion to solve the absence of proposals STS in General Chemistry books, as well as the student’s positivist attitudes, it was developed some educational material to be used in the course of General Chemistry at College. The material is structured to introduce a historical view of the concepts preparation, present the use of materials, the industrial and technological processes, and social and environmental consequences of this activities