Fumo passivo: das concepções dos alunos à utilização de uma ferramenta pedagógica sobre o tema no ensino fundamental

Abstract

The current study, of qualitative nature, had as its central theme the passive smoking through the perspective of Education in Science. Seeking to generate subsidies which would cooperate to the establishment of pedagogical strategies which promote both meaningful learning and scientific literacy regarding the theme, the study aimed at: investigating elementary school (from 6th through 9th) students conceptions about passive smoking. evaluate the approach of the themes passive smoking and smoking in the didactic science books used in elementary school; elaborate a ludic-interactive pedagogical tool contemplating the effects of passive smoking on the biological system; evaluate the impact of the pedagogical tool on the students conceptions after their interaction with it. The tools used for the data collection were the semi-structured questionary and the active observation. To approximate reality, the theory of Previous Conceptions was used and for the data interpretation Content Analysis and Descriptive Statistics were used. The results obtained in the study, in a general way, show that: the elementary school students conceptions on passive smoking are scarce superficial; students conceptions vary from non-understanding of what passive smoking is up to the suitable understanding, although incomplete, of the scientific concept of it. In Addition, the conceptions demonstrated to be strongly associated to the universe of drugs, of disease and of death; the theme approach in Science books came out limited, fragmented and decontextualized; the pedagogical tool Lung and its Gang , elaborated in the study, demonstrated to be useful to comprehend passive smoking and its effects on the biological system, since evolutions in the students concepts were observed after their interaction with it. After this interaction with the pedagogical tool, the dawn of a critical attitude from the students regarding passive smoking was also noticed. Even though the obtained results cannot be generalized, they reveal both the shortage of formal knowledge on passive smoking among elementary school students and the neglect of the theme in the school sphere. The elaborated pedagogical tool, however in need of repair, was able to motivate students to critically reflect about the theme, therefore outlining a scientific literacy about it. Considering the aspects inferred in this study, it is expected that it contributes to the elaboration of political-pedagogical proposals which contemplate not only passive smoking, which is the third largest avoidable and removable reason for death in the world, but also other themes on life quality and health, thus promoting scientific literacy through Education in Science.