O uso da biografia de Darwin para a construção de conceitos de evolução Biológica: uma proposta de sequência didática

Abstract

The content of Evolution is very important in High School education, although facing huge challenges, especially because the interference of religious vision, that contribute to put the teachers on an uneasy and sometimes fearful position. Beyond that, the misunderstanding of the scientific method and the mistaken ideas on evolutionary theory itself, that are popularly spread, are key points to be overcome. The research eveloped in this work had as main objective to organize and use on High School classrooms a Didactic Sequence (DS) with an investigative approach, using Darwin’s biography for teaching concepts of Biological Evolution (BE). For collecting student elements for learning evaluation and satisfaction, semi-structured questionnaires were created (pre-test and the post-test), containing comic strips of a scientific nature and addressing the theme of Biological Evolution (BE). The DS had 7 parts, and used for teaching senior High School students (on the 3rd year) from a public school in the city of Contagem/MG. Attitudinal student behavior were observed in addition to the assessment of the learning process by comparing the answers of the pre-test and the post-test questionnaires to evaluate the learning promoted by the DS. Bardin’s content analysis (1977) was used for analyzing the qualitative data, including the notes in the log book. The pre-test answers showed that even with the presence of “creationist” students, the majority of the students see in science a reliable way to explain BE, although without having the understanding of how the biological diversity process takes place. After the end of the SD, according to the post-test answers, the students were able to establish links between Darwin’s theories and Genetics to explain BE, but without being able to learn that the concept of induced adaptation is wrong. The students liked learning with the DS, and the systematization game and the search for Darwin’s profile were the most liked steps. Although still considering that teaching BE is a great challenge, its importance stimulates to continue provoking reflections on strategies for approaching this matter in the classroom. Even with the partial success of DS, it was possible to advance in the construction of new strategies, hopefully being a source of inspiration for other teachers use in classroom.