Uma abordagem didático-formativa sobre drogas para estudantes do ensino médio

Abstract

Drugs in school environment is a constant concern of education professionals who are often not prepared to deal with drug related problems. Studies have shown that school is the most appropriate place to carry out drug abuse prevention programs, where educators may stimulate students to have healthier lifestyle. The present study aimed to elaborate a teaching sequence of activities that approaches drugs as a formative (and not only informative) subject, in order to promote a deeper knowledge about drug subject as well as its physical and social effects. A teaching sequence consisting of 4 activities was developed as following: i) lecture classes, ii) midia research groups, iii) debates/yarning cicles and iv) teaching game. Prior to teaching sequence performance a 10 questions preliminary questionnaire was applied in order to obtain informations such as types of drugs already tried and places they were tried. The study was carried out with 89 high school students (3 school classes, 2nd year) aging 15 to 17 and attending morning shift at a school in Belo Horizonte/MG. Drugs more cited in the preliminary questionnaire were listed and divided into 5 groups: i) alcohol, ii) tobacco, iii) marijuana, iv) lysergic acid (LCD) & ecstasy and v) cocaine & crack. After lecture classes each school class was divided into 5 groups and each group was made responsible to research one of the 5 drug’ groups using informative midia. Following research period the 5 groups’ findings were discussed in classrooms, under debates/discussion groups forms. Thereafter, a teaching game structured according to a question and answer quis rules was applied to the participants’ groups previously formed whom were oriented to follow a confrontation keying. Finally, a 10 questions final questionaire was applied in which questions as relevance of drugs subject discussion at school as well as utilisation of debates/yarning cicles would be a facilitating activity in the learning process where addressed to participants. In the last question, participants were asked to evaluate the teaching sequence applied in the present study. Results of preliminar questionaire showed that: among male and female participants who have already tried some kind of drug, alchool was the most cited; ‘parties” were places or environments where drug use was mostly made; curiosity was the main motivation to use drugs for the first time to most male and female; higher percentage of females (58%) than males (35%) answered to be aware about drugs’ effects on the body; most participants (79%) declared not being pressured to use drugs by the environment surrounds them; high percentage of females (36%) and males participants (47%) declared to feel more free to talk about drugs with friends rather than with parents and relatives or at school. Debates/yarning cicles’ activity allowed participants to correlate drugs’ use to pregnancy and potentialization of diseases as cardiorespiratory, neurodegenerative and mental diseases as well as to cancer and sexually transmitted diseases. Participants pointed out that possibles reasons teenagers get involved with drugs would be age-related immaturity, biological predisposition, influence of friends and, familiar and emotional dysfunctionality. At the end of debates/yarning circles, participants suggested physical exercise (as soccer), extra activities (part time labor, short courses, dance and music) and mental healthycare (psychologist support) as manners of avoiding the issues raised. The teaching game was applied and teaching sequence was evaluated by applying a final questionaire. Most participants answered that discussion of ‘drugs’ subject at school is very relevant. Among steps of teaching sequence, lecture classes and debates/yarning cicles were better evaluated (above 80%) than teaching game (75%) Nevertheless, the difference is not quite significant. Altogether, our results suggest the teaching sequence proposed in this study was beneficial to drugs’ subject approach at school, playing an important role in learning process and knowledge consolidation on drugs, where students were the protagonists in most steps of sequence.