Análise e contribuições para o ensino de biologia molecular em um município do interior paulista

Abstract

Currently the number of works that seek to understand the difficulties involved in the teaching and learning process in Biology field, more specifically in the Molecular Biology subfield, has been grown exponentially. Such concern reflects the importance of this content that is established by different documents related to education, as the PCNEM and the State of São Paulo Curriculum. Molecular Biology is one of the basic topics to be guaranteed to the learners. The present research aims to analyze the difficulties encountered by students residing in a small city in the interior of São Paulo in understanding concepts related to Molecular Biology and and their applications and test the hypothesis that a new teaching material can improve students' knowledge and make them learn this content. According to the State of São Paulo Curriculum, the Molecular Biology content must be taught in the second year of High School, and for this reason the data collection was developed with a group of students properly enrolled at this level of education in a state public school in a small city in the interior of São Paulo. The theoretical basis that provided us grounding to understand and discuss the difficulties faced by students related to this subfield of knowledge is based on the concepts of habitus, field and capital, elaborated by the french sociologist Pierre Bourdieu. The methodologies adopted to collect the data obtained were the focus group and the prosopography, while our methodology for analyzing the data was made through content analysis. After data collection it was possible to confirm some difficulties in teaching this subject already pointed by the literature, such as: the abstract character of the content; the difficulty of the students in understanding the information disclosed by the different mass media; the inappropriate format of the teaching material currently available in the public education network of the state of São Paulo; teaching based on memorization; among other difficulties. It was also possible to show other difficulties that make the teaching of this content an obstacle both for teachers and students, such as: the reduced number of Biology classes; the organization of content according to the Sate of São Paulo Curriculum; the lack of extra class study; the absence of family support; the continued progression; the cultural heritage of the students; the large number of students per classroom, among others. Beyond the difficulties, it was possible to raise suggestions to facilitate the understanding of this content, some more likely to be performed than others. Among the suggestions, we can mention: the development of interactive and practical classes; monitoring in reverse period; use of teaching materials that are less repetitive and that can challenge the students; among others. In relation to the handbook we tested, we believe that it may contribute to the teaching and learning process in Molecular Biology, since there was great acceptance of it by the students. However, there are many problems to be solved related to Molecular Biology teaching.