A significação do ensino de ciências da natureza nos anos iniciais: contribuições do espaço formativo compartilhado para a formação de professores

Abstract

This Doctoral thesis, linked to the research line ―Teaching, Knowledge and Professional Development‖ of the Graduate Program in Education at the Federal University of Santa Maria (UFSM), researched aspects related to teacher training. The main objective was to understand actions that can unleash the significance of the teaching of Natural Sciences in the Early Years of Elementary School (ES) for the teacher when involved in a Shared Formative Space (SFS). The theoretical assumptions that supported the research were based on the Historical-Cultural Theory, mainly in the works of Vigotski (2001, 1995, 1994), Leontiev (1983, 1978) and Davidov (1988) that lead to understand the subject as a historical and social being, who, by appropriating culture through interactions with other subjects and activities carried out, develops their psyche. In the perspective of teacher training, contributions come from authors who also found their proposals in this theoretical line and from authors who investigate it involving the teaching of Natural Sciences. In this context, we set up an SFS with a Teacher, in the school environment, to organize the teaching of Natural Sciences for the Early Years of ES, especially as regards some Chemistry subjects. The actions carried out helped us answer our research question: how can an SFS unleash for the teacher the significance of teaching Natural Sciences in the Early Years of ES? The data produced with audio recordings, Researcher's records and reports written by the Teacher were systematized based on episodes (MOURA, 2000) and analyzed using three units of analysis (VIGOTSKI, 2001), namely: 1) Reasons and meanings to teach Natural Sciences in the Early Years; 2) The learning movement in the organization of teaching and 3) The SFS as a promoter of change in the quality of actions. From this analysis, the thesis defended in this work is that, when the teacher places himself in a formative and shared process of study, planning, development and evaluation of teaching actions, intentionally organized, the meanings he attributes to teaching activity related to the area of Natural Sciences in the Early Years coincide with its social meaning, leading to the process of signification. The units of analysis provided us with subsidies to understand that the actions related to intentional and conscious objectives that guided them - namely: to know the official documents that govern the school curriculum; to understand theoretical and methodological basis that guide actions; to take ownership of theoretical concepts of Natural Sciences; to share actions with more experienced subjects and; to articulate study actions with teaching actions - they allow the teacher to develop theoretical thinking about the teaching of Natural Sciences, leading to the significance of this teaching. The results also point out that a space geared towards training, organized in the perspective of sharing, allows those involved to put themselves into activity, providing new learnings and changes in the quality of their actions regarding teaching, particularly in this case of Natural Sciences.