Ensino de biologia por analogias: possibilidades desde a formação de formadores

Abstract

The quotidian of students is permeated by a multitude of subjects that arouse their attention by requiring understanding, reasoning and taking action on the issues involved. From these notions, the idea of knowledge and the meaning of concepts by individuals in formation, establish direct relations between everyday and scientific knowledge. In this sense, the possibility of knowledge constructed through the use of analogies - being defined as instruments between the concepts to be understood and those who have already built - becomes possible. In the present work, we chose to investigate how the teachers of the Course of Biological Sciences of FACEDI understand analogies as a didactic teaching tool, and how they express themselves about its potentialities and its use in the forming future educators. Many studies have addressed this issue by directing the focus to the scope of the basic schools, and among the Sciences, mainly in the area of physics. The method of study used a qualitative approach, as an exploratory and descriptive technique, characterized as a Case Study. Data collection occurred from September/2012 to April/2013 and used tools like interviews, document analysis and literature survey. The locus of the research was the College Course of Biological Sciences of FACEDI, and subjects were effective teachers of that course. Data analysis involved the reading of texts sent by the subjects and the transcript of their interviews. The results showed that teachers surveyed considered analogy as an important teaching tool in the teaching and learning processes in the field of Biology. The lack of formal concept of this theme was evidenced when they made references to analogies, mistakenly considering them as metaphors and / or examples. Instinctive use seemed to reflect the uncertainty of the investigated teachers about the theoretical content that underlie the subject of analogies. Among the subjects was found an interest not only for the use of analogies in the classroom, but also on their knowledge in a deeper way, from the point of view of academia, considering theoretical and methodological issues, as they are constituted, their conceptual and typological aspects, their possibilities for use and evaluation. For these teachers the inclusion of this topic in the education tools for the formation of future teachers is one of the ways of making the theme most known and important among future educators. Therefore , it was considered in this research that the analogy is seen by the subjects investigated , as a potentiator of teaching biology instrument, and that it is used recurrently and instinctively . And that their views about the potential of this teaching tool are indeed facing the acceptance of the same in the teaching process and learning , though mistakenly as the operationalization of the same.