O perfil conceitual de calor e sua utilização por comunidades situadas

Abstract

This work investigates the use of the conceptual profile of heat in two different socio-culturally situated communities: (i) technicians working with refrigeration and (ii) firefighters. This research contributes to the development of studies on conceptual profiles as it investigates the use of a concept beyond the academic and everyday life realms, turning to contexts in which these communities of practice use some stabilized meanings. We present a study about the use of the conceptual profile of heat by students and instructors from training courses of these professionals as well as other professionals working in the area. We investigate the different ways of speaking associated with different ways of thinking that characterize this conceptual profile. The use of the concept of heat during the professional performance by these communities contemplates ways of speaking about heat stabilized by science and also alternative concepts of heat as thermal sensation, as temperature and as substance. The results show that there can be different meanings stabilized to the same concept when it is put into use by different communities. These concepts may be of particular use in the community and some of them result from the interaction with scientific concepts, as the concepts of fire tetrahedron, for firefighters, and thermal load, for the refrigeration technicians, without however being equivalent to the ones conveyed in the school community. Others, however, show pragmatic value for these communities but are not considered as valid concepts by the scientific community, such as the concepts of heat as thermal sensation and as substance. The use of a conceptual profile takes into account the fact that one or more ways of thinking, compatible or not with the scientific concept, will be present in the use of the concept by the individual. Each zone of the profile corresponds to a way of thinking and talking about problems faced by these communities in practical situations. Multiple zones can coexist in the same individual and in the same community, each being used in more proper context. Thus, the learning of a concept is something dynamic, affected by its use, which stabilize several meanings, scientific or not.