O mestrado profissional na área de ensino de Ciências e Matemática: alguns esclarecimentos

This paper, elaborated from documents created and used in the last years by the commissions and coordinations of the Science and Mathematics Teaching CAPES/MEC (Coordination of Improvement of Higher Education Personnel/Ministry of Education) Area, brings some explanations regarding the professional master’s degree in Science and Mathematics Teaching. This kind of master’s program is an innovation in Brazil and may contribute significantly to the improvement of science and mathematics teaching in the country. It may also stimulate the development of similar proposals in other Latin-American countries.

Considerações teóricas sobre o uso da informática na resolução de problemas de trigonometria

The present work is determined to analyse trigonometry problem solving with the help of CabriGéomètre II software from the perspective of two axes of mathematics teaching which are: the concept formation in Klausmeier and Goodwin´s perspective(1977) and problem solving according to Sternberg’s conception(2000). With such an approach traces of a more significant learning may be found , which according to Ausubel(1980) enables the adoption of better teaching and learning practices.

Quais saberes são mobilizados para suprir as lacunas na formação inicial referentes à história da ciência?

Nowadays it is increasingly required insertion History of Science on content to be worked in education, which raises many doubts and difficulties on the teachers did not have that content in their initial training. This work results from a qualitative empirical study aimed to investigate how a teacher of Biology and Science in a public school in the city of Bauru - SP was not in their initial training courses relating to the History of Science, mobilizes their knowledge to enter such an approach in their teaching practice. In the research methodology used as its theme the history of DNA present in the materials and also conduct open interviews and field notes to identify the knowledge involved in teaching practice and was adopted as the theoretical framework of Maurice Tardif’s Docent Knowledge. The results showed that even with difficulties arising from gaps in initial training, the teacher resorted to their experiential knowledge to meet these needs in addition to appropriate knowledge from the programs and textbooks, but its shortcomings make it difficult to analyze more critically. Thus, these data lead us to a reflection on the role of textbooks for these teachers is the process by which the consolidation of the knowledge they constructed.

Reflexões sobre o desenvolvimento da prática social e a produção e sistematização do conhecimento matemático

The aim of this study is to reflect about the cultural aspects concerning Mathematics Education, from the relationship betwen the development of the social practice and the production and systematization of knowledge about Mathematics. Thus, in first instance, there is a reflection about the producton level of mathematics knowledge in diverse social contexts, facing the level of complexity of the investigated reality. In a second instance, considerations are made about the necessity of understanding the culture phenomenum, in a totalizing perspective and the implications facing the atomization of culture in researches of ethnographic aspects about the production of mathematics in specific social contexts.

Saberes docentes, sistema de avaliação de rendimento escolar do Estado de São Paulo e ensino de Ciências: um estudo de caso a partir de situações de ensino-aprendizagem

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

A Resolução de problemas no ensino de matemática

The Troubleshooting is a methodology that stands out in mathematics teaching, it provides a meaningful learning, favoring the intellectual development of the student and the autonomous and critical thinking. In this work an exploratory study on the use of Problem Solving as a teaching strategy. Along it is discussed the importance of problem solving, which is a problem and their differences for years, the types of problems, how to solve a problem and as a teacher should apply problem solving in the classroom choosing problems and exercises adequate and properly questioning the student

Adapted Physical Education teachers and teaching knowledge

In the 1980's, there was a suggestion of including the Adapted Physical Education discipline in the Physical Education Graduation Course. In this perspective, starting from the Adapted Physical Education teacher's routine, the aim of this research was to verify what these teachers know and how they manage to plan, elaborate and apply their knowledge with their students with educational special needs. It's an exploring study that had in its interview and silabus analisis technics the source of its data. Among its most important results, it showed teaching, experimental and pedagogical knowledge as part of Physical Education and Adapted Physical Education, in the arrangement, building and knowledge apliance.

The USAID and the teaching of mathematics in Rio Grande do Norte

In the 1960s occurred great changes in the general education and, specially in the mathematical teaching, throughout Brazil. Besides the Law Diretrizes e Bases for Education (law 4024/1961), such changes also was occurred by opposite educational movements. In one side, those ones that valorized the popular education and culture and, for the other side, the international agreements between universities and government organs, like SUDENE and MEC, with United States Agency for International Development (USAID). These agreements purposed the cultural alignment. In this article we will expose some of these agreements and their interference in two courses for teachers' education. These teachers taught mathematics for the elementary school, in Rio Grande do Norte.

Experiencing Manipulative Material for the Teaching and Learning of Mathematics

This paper presents some outcomes from research based on classroom experiences. The main themes are the use of mirrors, kaleidoscopes, dynamic geometry software, and manipulative material considering their possibilities for the teaching and learning of Euclidean and non-Euclidean geometries.

Knowledge and attitudes of health care workers from intensive care units regarding nosocomial transmission of influenza: a study on the immediate pre-pandemic period

The transmission of influenza in health care settings is a major threat to patients, especially those with severe diseases. The attitude of health care workers (HCWs) may influence the transmission of countless infections. The current study aimed to quantify knowledge and identify attitudes of HCWs involved in intensive care units (ICUs) regarding the risk of nosocomial influenza transmission. A questionnaire was applied through interviews to HCWs who worked in one of the five ICUs from a teaching hospital. Questions about influenza were deliberately dispersed among others that assessed several infectious agents. Forty-two HCWs were interviewed: nine physicians, ten nurses and 23 nursing technicians or auxiliaries. Among the 42 HCWs, 98% were aware of the potential transmission of influenza virus in the ICUs, but only 31% would indicate droplet precautions for patients with suspected infection. Moreover, only 31% of them had been vaccinated against influenza in the last campaign (2008). Nursing technicians or auxiliaries were more likely to have been vaccinated, both by univariate and multivariable analysis. When asked about absenteeism, only 10% of the study subjects stated that they would not go to work if they had an influenza-like illness. Those findings suggest that, in non-pandemic periods, influenza control in hospitals requires strategies that combine continuous education with changes in organizational culture.

Comparing the Teaching-Learning Process With and Without the Use of Computerized Technological Resources

Computerized technological resources have become essential in education, particularly for teaching topics that require the performance of specific tasks. These resources can effectively help the execution of such tasks and the teaching-learning process itself. After the development of a Web site on the topic of nursing staff scheduling, this study aimed at comparing the development of students involved in the teaching-learning process of the previously mentioned topic, with and without the use of computer technology. Two random groups of undergraduate nursing students from a public university in São Paulo state, Brazil, were organized: a case group (used the Web site) and a control group (did not use the Web site). Data were collected from 2003 to 2005 after approval by the Research Ethics Committee. Results showed no significant difference in motivation or knowledge acquisition. A similar performance for the two groups was also verified. Other aspects observed were difficulty in doing the nursing staff scheduling exercise and the students' acknowledgment of the topic's importance for their training and professional lives; easy access was considered to be a positive aspect for maintaining the Web site.

Teaching the Rational Use of Medicines to medical students: a qualitative research

Background: Prescribing is a complex and challenging task that must be part of a logical deductive process based on accurate and objective information and not an automated action, without critical thinking or a response to commercial pressure. The objectives of this study were 1) develop and implement a discipline based on the WHO's Guide to Good Prescribing; 2) evaluate the course acceptance by students; 3) assess the impact that the Rational Use of Medicines (RUM) knowledge had on the students habits of prescribing medication in the University Hospital.Methods: In 2003, the RUM principal, based in the WHO's Guide to Good Prescribing, was included in the official curriculum of the Botucatu School of Medicine, Brazil, to be taught over a total of 24 hours to students in the 4th year. We analyzed the students' feedback forms about content and teaching methodology filled out immediately after the end of the discipline from 2003 to 2010. In 2010, the use of RUM by past students in their medical practice was assessed through a qualitative approach by a questionnaire with closed-ended rank scaling questions distributed at random and a single semistructured interview for content analysis.Results: The discipline teaches future prescribers to use a logical deductive process, based on accurate and objective information, to adopt strict criteria (efficacy, safety, convenience and cost) on selecting drugs and to write a complete prescription. At the end of it, most students considered the discipline very good due to the opportunity to reflect on different actions involved in the prescribing process and liked the teaching methodology. However, former students report that although they are aware of the RUM concepts they cannot regularly use this knowledge in their daily practice because they are not stimulated or even allowed to do so by neither older residents nor senior medical staff.Conclusions: This discipline is useful to teach RUM to medical students who become aware of the importance of this subject, but the assimilation of the RUM principles in the institution seems to be a long-term process which requires the involvement of a greater number of the academic members.

Forma/ação do professor de Matemática e suas concepções de mundo e de conhecimento

Esta pesquisa busca trabalhar com diferentes concepções de mundo e de conhecimento, investigando a articulação entre o sentido que elas possuem para os professores de Matemática e suas concepções de ensino e de Educação. O estudo gira em torno de discussões que ocorreram em um curso de extensão para professores de Matemática. Esse curso tratou de concepções de mundo e de conhecimento, relacionando-as com diferentes regiões do saber, como Matemática, Física, Ecologia e Artes, focando a transição entre a concepção de mundo da Época Moderna para a concepção de mundo que vem se construindo na denominada Época Pós-moderna ou Contemporânea. A meta é compreender o sentido que aquelas concepções têm para os professores e destacar possíveis momentos de metacompreensão sobre a articulação entre essas concepções e sua prática docente. A metodologia utilizada é qualitativa, de uma perspectiva fenomenológica.