A concepção de interdisciplinaridade no Ensino de Ciências nos cursos de formação inicial de professores do ICET/UFAM

Abstract

The role of interdisciplinarity in teaching is a topic that is gaining more traction within the environment of initial teacher training. However, the interdisciplinary approach in teaching still comes up against paradigms present in the training environment characterized by the traditional training model and grounded in a positivist teaching approach. Research indicates that these practices in the training environment only cause harm to initial teacher training, strengthening the conception of a teacher who is not worried about his practice or performance, which causes the teacher to be unprepared to meet the needs that the teaching profession requires nowadays. This study was done to understand, based on the experiences of the subjects, how interdisciplinarity in science education is conceived in the teaching degree programs in the sciences: Mathematics /Physics and Chemistry/Biology at the Institute of Science and Technology at the Federal University of Amazonas, located in the city of Itacoatiara in Brazil. These degrees include a number of particularities, since their curriculum matrices systematically bring together two scientific disciplines and train teachers that should be able to teach in both of the subject area covered. From this perspective, these programs could enhance the training of science teachers working with an interdisciplinary teaching approach in science education. This study uses the hermeneutic phenomenology qualitative research method. It was carried out at the training institute, located in a rural part of the state of Amazonas. Data collection for the research was conducted through semi-structured interviews and document analysis. The interviews were conducted between August and November 2015 and had the participation of 23 undergraduates (including eleven from Mathematics and Physics and twelve from Chemistry and Biology), four graduates (including two from each degree) and seven professors (three from Mathematics and Physics and four from Chemistry and Biology). Their participation was voluntarily and written consent was given to be able to record the interviews for later analysis. The documents analyzed are part of the teaching projects of the programs and the National Curriculum Guidelines for Secondary Education, since the training of these teachers is geared primarily towards teaching in high school. The study was conducted through in-depth analysis of these degrees, trying to understand their construction bases, their particularities and finally considered whether the actions undertaken in this model provide appropriate training for a teacher who will use the technique of interdisciplinarity in science education. The study found that interdisciplinarity is conceived by undergraduates as a didactic way of relating disciplinary knowledge. Interdisciplinary activity can be developed in school through central themes that are able to make connections with other knowledge. The undergraduates believe that they will have difficulties in implementing these practices in school. In their opinion, the training model does not provide an interdisciplinary view of education because, even with this curricular approach, the subject areas remain isolated from each other. For the professors, despite compromising on some conceptual aspects of the teaching of these subjects, the training model is appropriate. From the perspective of the professors in these programs, working to train these teachers with an interdisciplinary perspective is not something they are used to, due to the lack of contact that they had with interdisciplinarity during their own training. It was evident, in talking to both the professors and the undergraduates, that mastery of content is overvalued in the training environment. Thus, the teacher training model tends to take on characteristics that work against the adoption of a pedagogical practice that has interdisciplinary teaching in science education as its focus.