Os saberes de professores que ensinam ciências nas séries iniciais - um estudo de caso.

Abstract

The main objectives of this research are: a) to identify and to analyze the knowledge base utilized by science teachers in their daily practice in the first grades of fundamental school ; b) to identify the sources of acquisition of teaching knowledge; c) to know the relation of the teachers with their knowledge base; d) to know the importance attributed by these teachers to their personal and professional relationships in the construction of their teaching knowledge; d) to identify the sources of information used by the teachers for the daily teaching exercise. The main theoretical references which oriented the research were the works and categories proposed by Tardif (2002), complemented by the works of Shulman (1986), Barth (1993), Gauthier et al. (1998) and Borges (2004). These references made it possible to initiate the construction of a framework for the performance analysis of the teachers in the first grades of fundamental school, related to natural sciences teaching. Two teachers participated of this inquiry. They act in fourth grade of fundamental school in private institutes. Besides answering a semi-structured interview, the two teachers analyzed a teaching case related to the science education in the first grades of fundamental school and they answered questions presented at the end of the teaching case. Based on the analysis of the data collected it was possible to identify in the teacher´s speech referential elements of the five categories proposed by Tardif (2002): professional knowledge, disciplinar knowledge, curricular knowledge, experiential knowledge and the relationship of the teachers with their knowledge. The analysis confirm the appreciation of experiential knowledge. Didactic books, magazines and internet sites are confirmed as sources of acquisition of their subject knowledge. The under appreciation of their initial formation and the absence of deepened reflections about the curricular organization of the educational level where they act were also confirmed. The science conception present in the teachers discourse considers that scientific knowledge is not static and it evolves continuously. They recognize the dynamic character of sciences, however without considering that science is the creation of human beings, and that it can transform the visions about the world and be transformed by them. It was perceived that the collective and cooperative work of the teachers is an important tool to stimulate a reflective practice, creating the conditions for the teachers to restructure their knowledge base by validation and appropriation of several external sources, incorporating them to their experiential knowledge basis. Therefore it is believed that the collective work, if guided well, can be an important way of continuous formation, as showed by Torres (1998) in the example of the "formation microcenters .