Projetos de trabalhos práticos no ensino de ciências: uma experiência de formação continuada de professores da rede pública

Abstract

This work presents the final results of a research for a master thesis about a refresher course on Practical Work Project. The purpose of the work was to elaborate, develop and analyze a refresher course on practical work projects for Natural Science teachers who work in the elementary public schools of Contagem. The development of the course had the goal of contributing to the Natural Science teachers continuing education in relation to Practical Work Project theme, providing the teachers conditions of using this pedagogical strategy in their planning. For this study it was used bibliographic research, questionnaires, written activities in person and in the secret group of the social networking website Facebook, meetings filming and the researcher notes from fieldwork notebook. Twenty-one teachers were enrolled in the course. During the course theoretical aspects related to conception, teaching Science, guiding students work, the students role and learning were presented and discussed. Enrolled teachers experienced practical work project development and had discussions in the secret group of the social networking site Facebook. The teachers also had, as main activity, to develop and present projects of practical work with their students for an exhibition in a school science fair during the course. During the meetings, teachers brought to discussion their experience on the use of the strategy in their classrooms. The results showed that during the face-to-face meetings debates among teachers were rich and those were important moments to think about the experiences and also to strengthening professional autonomy. In relation to the development of the projects in the schools, the teachers had great difficulty. The participants who complete the course argued that school dynamics made it difficult to develop the projects with students in the classroom during the course period. In this study it is highlighted the importance of continuous education in a practical work for teachers of Natural Science, in a perspective that approaches theoretical aspects and school activities development, which, although it was not as expected by the coordinating teachers, brought ideas to think about teacher training, considering their school reality and teacher training demand. According to these analyzes, it was elaborated a second version of the course, a product of the Professional Master Degree.