Crianças à sombra do conceito: perfil conceitual de gravidade

Abstract

This study aimed to provide a conceptual profile of gravity with conceptions of gravity of children four and five years old. The approach of conceptual profiles was adopted as a theoretical and methodological tool for analyzing the heterogeneity of ways of thinking and talking about this concept. This approach, designed by Mortimer (2000) and developed by a group of researchers in the research program of conceptual profiles, has already been used in several studies, dissertations and theses in Brazil and other countries. The conceptual profile of this study consisted of three genetic domains: the sociocultural domain, through a literature review on the history of the concept of gravity; the ontogenetic, through the compilation of studies on student conceptions of gravity; and the microgenetic, through an exploratory case study conducted with children four and five years old to grasp their conceptualizations of gravity. The dialogic analysis of discourses of children about why things fall provided a proposition of a conceptual profile of gravity, consisting in three zones: internalist, externalist and compositional. These three zones represent ways of children understanding about the concept of gravity. The internalist zone exposes that gravity is a characteristic of the body; externalist zone exposes that gravity is caused by an external action to the body; compositional zone shows that gravity is an exchange of actions.