Uma proposta de ensino baseada nos saberes locais para a promoção da aprendizagem significativa em química

Abstract

The challenge of teaching Chemistry is aimed at producing meaningful knowledge, linking teaching content and knowledge of the students' social reality. Considering this perspective and following the guidelines of the Chemistry Curriculum Proposal for High School (SEDUC-AM, 2012), which guides the use of methodological alternatives for this stage of basic training, we elected Manihot esculenta Crantz (cassava) as the object to study and promote meaningful learning in organic chemistry. In this sense, the following question was opened: How can local knowledge related to the study of cassava molecules contribute to meaningful learning in organic chemistry? In view of this problem, in order to generate meanings to the contents worked on Organic Chemistry, a Didactic Sequence or Teaching Unit was applied using as a context the molecules of cassava, in the light of David Ausubel's Theory of Meaningful Learning (1963), for integrating the everyday life of students at the State Full-Time School Brandão de Amorim, in the municipality of Parintins-AM. Thus, it was possible to consider the students' previous knowledge, local knowledge, for the insertion of new concepts such as carbon chains, organic functions and polymer. The research was conducted in a qualitative approach and the participants were 18 high school students and a chemistry teacher. The actions were carried out in fifteen classes divided into seven activities. The results obtained were analyzed through the use of Textual Discursive Analysis and participant observation and show that the participants at different times provide evidence of significant learning. Such results allow us to affirm that the use of local knowledge contextualized in a planned didactic sequence, contributes significantly to the learning of chemical concepts, as students presented changes in their way of thinking and acting in the classroom, in addition to Furthermore, it was possible to observe new understandings about the contents studied from the comments produced by the students, which can also be characterized as an occurrence of significant learning.