A resolução de problemas e a experimentação: metodologias para o ensino de química na educação profissional e tecnológica

Abstract

This paper presents the final results of the research project developed at the Academic Master’s Degree in Professional and technological Education of the Industrial Technical College of Santa Maria at the Federal University of Santa Maria. The project aims to investigate if Experimentation based on Problem Solving methodology may be a viable alternative to enhance Chemistry Teaching in Professional and Technological Education. It intends to address the theoretical foundations of teaching Training, Experimentation and Problem Solving, Concept Maps besides doing a brief summary of the path of Professional Education in Brazil, as well as to present a bibliographic record on the subject in question. The methodological foundation is based on Design Based Research (DBR), which proposes to identify real problems by everybody involved in the research, and the application of practical and innovative solutions to the identified problems, through interactive cycles, producing new practices that improve education and also include qualitative and quantitative methods for analyzing results. Data are analyzed by Bardin Content Analysis. The implementation of the first and second iterative cycles takes place in a federal Institution of Rio Grande do Sul, in a Pharmacy Technician Course, in the Instrumental Chemistry discipline. The results demonstrated despite the challenges, a Problem Solving coupled with Experimentation, show a promising possibility in Chemistry Teaching in Professional and Technological Education. However, it is necessary an effective teacher mediation to prompt students to do work that disengage them from routine and put them as active subjects in the construction of their own knowledge. In this perspective, the use of technological resources such as comics, social networks, WebQuest, among others, proved to be possibilities for students to feel stimulated to solve the proposed problem. In addition, Concept Maps have shown potentiality for using them as an evaluative tool, since they are the image of the cognitive construction of the subjects.