O role-playing game no ensino de ciências/física: potencialidades para a educação CTS

Abstract

The Teaching of Science/Physics has been experiencing some difficulties. Authors point out that such difficulties are related, among other reasons, to the fragmentation of knowledge, the lack of motivation of students with regard to learning physics, the gap between what is learned in school and what is experienced in the real world, as well as the difficulty in creating a school culture of active student participation. In this sense, it is possible to find in the literature of the area researches discussing as an alternative to this scenario the rethinking of school curricula through themes, as is the case of CTS Education. Thus, this research seeks to answer the following research problem: to what extent the Role-Playing Game can contribute to the development of proposals based on STEM education? Thus, this research is characterized as bibliographic, in which a survey of papers published in academic events (National Symposium on Physics Teaching, Physics Teaching Research Meeting, and National Meeting of Research in Science Teaching) and Dissertations in the area of science and physics teaching, which discussed proposals, implemented or not, of activities using role-playing games, was carried out. To delimit the sample of papers published in the event proceedings, three steps were followed: searching the databases using keywords, reading the abstracts, and reading the full texts. For the delimitation of the dissertations, another three steps were followed: a search in the Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations and CAPES' Catalog of Theses and Dissertations, reading of the titles, abstracts, and objectives of the papers, and finally, the reading of the results and final considerations of the dissertations. Then, through the Textual Discourse Analysis, it was sought approximations between the results of the analyzed researches and the objectives of the curriculum perspective of CTS Education. In the analysis process, three categories were defined a priori: discussion of the interactions between Science Technology and Society; motivation in the teaching-learning process and protagonism, positioning and decision making. In the course of the analysis process, two other categories emerged: RPG as a tool for the systematization of content/knowledge and paradoxes present in the use of RPG in the classroom. As results, we could identify that the activities involving the use of role-playing games help the development of discussions about the interactions between Science, Technology and Society, besides promoting the development of important skills for the exercise of citizenship and the construction of a critical view about Science and Technology. Moreover, RPGs have shown to be a resource with great potential to provide motivation to students due to its playful character and also by its ability to assist in assigning meanings to the content worked in the classroom. It was also possible to observe the development of attitudes of positioning and the protagonism of students with regard to decision-making processes. Moreover, the potential of articulation between the role-playing game and the dynamics of the Three Pedagogical Moments was identified. It was possible to notice a certain limitation in the participation of students in some proposals, and also a contradiction between the mandatory nature of teaching and the pedagogical aspect of the role-playing game. Based on the research carried out, it is believed that it was possible to expand the possibilities of developing proposals based on Science and Technology Education in order to overcome some problems that permeate the teaching of Science/Physics and also to improve the methodological foundations related to this perspective