A abordagem de temas contemporâneos de biologia no ensino médio: um estudo exploratório

Abstract

The discoveries in the field of modern science raise a number of issues of moral, social, economic and political order. It is important that the society can be well informed about the advances of modern science, so that it can be able to make decisions about how the scientific knowledge produced must be used. This way, the teaching of Biology has to help the student to acquire tools that allow him to act in different contexts, especially in life, expanding his understanding of reality. This work aimed to examine how the approach and contextualizing of contemporary biological issues that are related to cell biology and genetics happen, in Biology classes in high school. The study of this research was developed at an Elementary and High School, E.E.F.M, in the city of Cratéus, with Biology teachers as sample. The aim was to analyze how the approach of issues of contemporary Biology such as stem cells, recombinant DNA technology, cloning, among others happens, and to investigate which information on these themes high school students possess, as well as to apply different teaching methodologies. The subjects were four teachers and students of the 1st and 3rd grades of the Basic Education. The data collection was carried out through questionnaires and also the observations of the applications of the classes related to the educational product developed with the collaboration of one of the school teachers. The results showed that these contents are barely addressed in the classroom, being the didactic textbook the primary resource used. Afterwards, teachers feel the need of a simplified teaching material, which can be used in Biology classes. Students, by their turn, have information on contemporary issues; however, many of them do not know to position themselves, and propose several didactical strategies that can improve Biology classes. A manual, then, was elaborated through an extensive literary research and the fitting of classes, according to the reality of public schools and counting on the collaboration of the teacher. From the different methods implemented in the classroom, it was observed that the use of different teaching strategies can be advantageous and useful to contribute and enrich students' knowledge, favoring the interaction between teacher and students, and assisting in the participation and discussion of scientific issues. Therefore, one of the major challenges for educators is to intensify the use of other materials and activities, in addition to the textbook, leading to learning. Teachers should use various teaching methodologies, along with the usage of many resources, as audiovisual ones, interactive games, texts or group dynamics, all organized according to the type of knowledge they want to explore. Taking into account the access to scientific knowledge, the school is the best place for the students to learn. However, many times the contents are not correctly organized and, because of this, the teacher finds himself in face of the big challenge to organize, to structure and to present the concepts in a satisfactory way, adapting it to the contents under study, in a way that the students can be efficiently encouraged.