Contribuições de um curso de extensão sobre energia e eletricidade para professores de Ciências, realizado em ambiente virtual e utilizando metodologias ativas de ensino

Abstract

This work was carried out from the investigation of the conceptual and methodological difficulties of elementary school science teachers regarding matter and energy contents of the Common National Curriculum Base that are worked on with eighth grade classes. We designed a formation course to contribute to teachers’ practice and discuss the contents of sources and transformation of energy, power, and consumption of electrical energy and electrical circuits. The course was planned from the theoretical referential of David Ausubel's Meaningful Learning Theory. Thus, taking into account the participants' prior knowledge, we developed materials to be potentially significant to promote interaction between new information and pre-existing knowledge in the cognitive structure of the participants. We based the work on the cognitive processes of progressive differentiation and integrative reconciliation. Due to the period of the pandemic caused by the COVID 19 virus, the course had to take place entirely remotely. Therefore, we had the following question for the investigation: whether the elaboration and application of a course in the extension modality aimed at formation teachers, using digital environments of teaching with the contents of “Matter and Energy” of the 8th year of elementary school, would be adequate and provide significant learning. The digital tools used were from the Google Educational platform: Google Meet (synchronous meetings via videoconference) and Google Classroom (availability of materials used in the course). As a teaching methodology, the flipped classroom was used and the research data was analyzed through conceptual maps using the neighborhood analysis methodology. The results showed that digital teaching environments can be conducive to science teaching, as long as everyone has adequate equipment and internet access. With regards to learning, we found elements that indicate possible significant learning of the content by the participants. As an educational product, all the material for the course's classes was made available in a virtual teaching environment on the internet. As for the conclusions, it can be said that the results of the work were satisfactory because at each stage of the research numerous challenges were overcome, experiences and knowledge acquired, in addition to the success in carrying out the extension course.