A formação de conceitos no ensino de graduação em enfermagem à luz da teoria da aprendizagem significativa

The Theory of Meaningful Learning (TML) described by David Paul Ausubel offers a proposal for the teaching strategies to provide a more active and effective student learning. The projection of the TML practice is demonstrated through the development of concept maps (CM) technique, created by Joseph Donald Novak, which presents as a strategy, method or schematic feature, which is an indicator to identify the cognitive organization of the knowledge acquired by students. The survey was conducted in the light of TML in relation to learning concepts involving students of undergraduate nursing in a public university in the state of Rio Grande do Norte. Thus, the study aimed to compare the concept learning of students of undergraduate nursing, when subjected to different forms of education, to point approaches that promote more effective and meaningful results. It was a quasi - experimental study with a qualitative analysis, conducted with students of the Undergraduate Nursing of the Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte (UFRN), approved by the Research Ethics Committee/UFRN Certification of Presention for Ethics Appreciation (CPEA) in 11706412.3.0000.5537. The study took place at two different times and involved content on complications mediate postoperative surgical wound in the same discipline with students who attended the 5th semester of the degree course in Nursing. For the viability of data collection, in the second half of 2013, we used the technique of CM, to represent the concept of complications mediate postoperative surgical wound covered in the classroom. CM were built at a different time from that of the discipline, with the support of tutors and preceded by a brief description and explanation about the form of preparation and application. In this study were subjected, 31 students of undergraduate nursing, registered in the discipline of Integral Attention to health I. In the first stage, 18 students participated in the survey, they had the teaching intervention based on TML, and in the second stage, all students participated in the lesson provided curriculum with the responsible teacher of the subject, on the same issue occurred. At the end of each meeting, the students 11 developed concept maps with the aid of software Cmap Tools®. Data analysis happened upon the technique of content analysis, supported by a conceptual map "glass", previously developed by researchers and aid in the preparation of the categories in which the concepts found were classified. The study found that the teaching intervention based on TML with the help of CM, managed to develop in students a more expressive teaching learning process than just classroom curriculum with the traditional teaching method, and also that the association between the intervention motion teaching with the traditional method and the use of the technique of CM encourages the student the ability to articulate the various acquired knowledge as well as apply them in real situations