Perfil conceitual de morte e a abordagem pedagógica do ciclo de vida, no ensino de ciências

Abstract

This thesis aimed at constructing a Conceptual Profile of Death and to identifying the interference of the Profiles zones in a pedagogic approach developed by the teachers about Life cycle, in Science Education at Secondary School. According to the Conceptual Profile model a concept can have a diversity of meanings that are used according to the context. As consequence, the teacher should consider this diversity in the moment that a certain pedagogical approach is planned, to guarantee the teaching and learning success. The studys hypotheses were that the Concept of Death comprises a profile. So, in a first moment, there were spent efforts to construct the zones that might constitute this profile from the specialized literature. Then the data collection instrument was designed. In the sequence, the empiric data were collected and analyzed. These analyses allowed the identification of the profiles zones and the localization of these zones theoretically. In order to obtain empirical data a questionnaire was applied to Biological Sciences, Social Sciences, Medicines and Educations students of different years and to the students of 8th grade of Secondary School. With the students of 8th grade was also applied a pedagogical approach to the Life Cycle. Therefore, it was possible to identify for the concept of Death, both based on the theoretical literature and on the empirical data, three zones: naturalistic, religious and relational. The naturalistic zone expresses a conception of Death as an organic phenomenon, that is, something natural, result of a condition that is intrinsic to living organisms. The religious zone contains a comprehension of Death as something that results from the divine will and represents a passage for the eternal life. The relational zone shows conceptions that deny or hide the death. It attributes to death a condition of fatality, something that shouldnt exist. Beside to admit the existence of a diversity of zones to a unique concept, the Death, it is also necessary to make the concept a school concept. We should also admit that the diversity and the heterogeneity of approaches should constitute the processes. In this sense, we defend that the development of pedagogical approaches that consider the Human Condition, the Encounter with the Other and the Respect to the Diversity became excellent possibilities to promote the teaching od death in Science Education