Tradição e inovação no ensino de física: grupos colaborativos de professores dando estabilidade a mudanças

Abstract

This work describes the conflict between tradition and innovation in Physics teaching starting from the formation and development of a teacher's collaborative group in the city of Sete Lagoas, MG. Based on Paulo Freire's works and in the literature about teachers' formation and teacher's knowledge, we established the beginnings for execution of a project that reconciled with research and professional development. For that, Physics teachers were invited to participate in a group that had for objective to discuss innovative activities developed in classroom. The materialization of the project created the Group of Development of Physics Teachers (GDPF), that it is meeting, periodically, since May of 2002. Being based on the technique of Focal Group, the dynamics of the meetings stimulated the group to narrate exemplary episodes of the tension that the teacher suffers between innovating and maintaining some teaching practice. For analysis of the narratives, we focalized the attention on the factors that interfere in the introduction of innovations in educational practice. The episodes narrated by the teachers they were organized in four categories: innovations starting from the own teacher's action; conflicts between the tradition and the innovation; the need for support to overcome the conflicts; fear and hope. Starting from those categories, we came to some considerations, leaning in the literature researched about the introduction of innovations in educational practice. The results reveal that, unlike what currently stated, the teachers look for changing their practices, but they don't have enough conditions to stability those changes. There are indications that collaborative works between teachers and researchers' groups make possible the professional development and to assure the bases to those changes.