Revista Brasileira de Educação do Campo
Brazilian Journal of Rural Education
ARTIGO/ARTICLE/ARTÍCULO
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.20873/uft.rbec.e3837
Tocantinópolis/Brasil
v. 5
e3837
10.20873/uft.rbec.e3837
2020
ISSN: 2525-4863
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Este conteúdo utiliza a Licença Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
Open Access. This content is licensed under a Creative Commons attribution-type BY
Co-teaching praxis as an interdisciplinary experience in
Natural Sciences teaching
Dalana Campos Muscardi
1
, Vivian Estevam Cornelio
2
1, 2
Universidade Federal do Espírito Santo – UFES. Departamento de Educação e Ciências Humanas. BR-101, km 60 –
Litorâneo. São Mateus - ES. Brasil.
Author for correspondence: dmuscardi@gmail.com
ABSTRACT. Although education in rural areas is already robust,
especially in relation to basic education, the graduation courses
regarding to teacher formation to this specific area are still young in
the Brazilian educational scenario. This aspect is being the scene of
epistemological, didactic and many other discussions that imply the
teaching action. We teach natural sciences in a degree course in
education in rural areas in the Northern University Center of Espírito
Santo, Federal University of Espírito Santo and we discuss these and
other issues, such as the teaching training by knowledge area,
overlapping and incorporating the debates in our teaching practice.
Therefore, we present in this article our co-teaching experience and
we discuss its challenges and overcoming during teaching a discipline
composed by contents of biology and chemistry. The discipline, called
“Introduction to cell biology and life chemistry” was created by two
teachers and had 60 hours of theory, taught during one semester. The
discipline and its evaluation activities were elaborated to integrate
biology and chemistry contents, to turn interdisciplinarity as possible
to realize. We report here the whole process of co-teaching, which
began with the collaborative conception and creation of the discipline,
moving forward to its execution, the elaboration of evaluative
activities and finalizing with the reflection and the writing of this
paper. Our experience revels the importance of interdisciplinarity and
co-teaching as a possibility of breaking the fragmented formation in
higher education.
Keywords: Education in Rural Areas, Co-teaching, Training by
knowledge Area.
Muscardi, D. C., & Cornelio, V. E. (2020). Co-teaching praxis as an interdisciplinary experience in Natural Sciences teaching...
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A práxis codocente como experiência interdisciplinar em
ensino de Ciências da Natureza
RESUMO. Ainda que a Educação do Campo já se apresente robusta,
sobretudo na educação básica, os cursos de Licenciatura em Educação
do Campo (Ledoc) ainda são jovens no cenário educacional brasileiro,
sendo palco de discussões epistemológicas, didáticas e outras tantas
que se apresentam e que implicam na ação docente. Como professoras
do curso de Licenciatura em Educação do Campo, habilitação em
Ciências Naturais, existente no Centro Universitário Norte do Espírito
Santo, Universidade Federal do Espírito Santo, debatemos essas e
outras questões, como a formação por área de conhecimento,
sobrepondo e incorporando os debates em nossa ação docente. Neste
sentido, apresentamos no presente artigo um relato de experiência de
codocência de uma disciplina que dialogou conteúdos de química e
biologia, discutindo seus desafios e superações frente à necessidade de
uma formação por área de conhecimento em ciências da natureza
numa Ledoc. A disciplina em questão, chamada de “Introdução à
biologia celular e química da vida”, teve carga horária de 60 horas
teóricas, e foi lecionada durante um período letivo a partir de aulas
dialógicas, contando com atividades avaliativas, com objetivos
conceituais e analíticos, pautadas na relação interdisciplinar entre os
conteúdos de biologia e química abordados. Esta disciplina foi
concebida e estruturada conjuntamente por duas professoras,
objetivando a abordagem de conteúdos introdutórios organizados de
forma a promover a interdisciplinaridade. Relatamos aqui todo o
processo de codocência, que se iniciou com a concepção e criação
conjunta da disciplina, passou pela sua execução, elaboração de
atividades avaliativas e culminou com reflexão e escrita deste
trabalho. Nossa experiência aponta a importância da
interdisciplinaridade e a codocência como uma possibilidade de
rompimento da formação fragmentada no ensino superior.
Palavras-chave: Educação do Campo, Codocência, Formação por
área de Conhecimento.
Muscardi, D. C., & Cornelio, V. E. (2020). Co-teaching praxis as an interdisciplinary experience in Natural Sciences teaching...
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La praxis codocente como experiencia interdisciplinaria en
la enseñanza de Ciencias de la Naturaleza
RESUMEN. Aunque la Educación del Campo ya se presenta robusta,
especialmente en la educación básica, los cursos de Licenciatura en
Educación del Campo (Ledoc) todavía son jóvenes en el escenario
educativo brasileño, siendo escenario de debates epistemológicos,
didácticos y de otros tantos tipos que se presentan e implican en la
acción docente. Como profesoras del Curso de Licenciatura en
Educación del Campo, habilitación en Ciencias Naturales, existente en
el Centro Universitario Norte de Espírito Santo, Universidad Federal
de Espírito Santo, debatimos estas y otras cuestiones, como la
formación por área de conocimiento, sobreponiendo e incorporando
los debates en nuestra acción docente. En este sentido, presentamos en
este artículo un relato de la experiencia de la codocência de una
disciplina que discutió los contenidos de química y biología,
discutiendo sus desafíos y la superación ante la necesidad de una
formación por área del conocimiento en ciencias de la naturaleza en
una Ledoc. La disciplina "Introducción a la biología celular y la
química de la vida", tuvo una carga de trabajo teórica de 60 horas, y se
enseñó durante un período académico, con actividades de evaluación,
con objetivos conceptuales y analíticos, basados en la relación
interdisciplinaria entre los contenidos de biología y química cubiertos.
Ella fue concebida y estructurada conjuntamente por dos maestros,
con el objetivo de abordar el contenido introductorio, organizado para
promover la interdisciplinariedad. Acá relatamos todo el proceso de
codocencia, que empezó con la concepción y creación conjunta de la
disciplina, pasó por su ejecución, elaboración de actividades de
evaluación y culminó con la reflexión y la escrita de este trabajo.
Señalamos para la importancia de la interdisciplinaridad y la
codocencia como una posibilidad de rompimiento de la formación
fragmentada en la enseñanza superior.
Palabras clave: Educación del Campo, Codocencia, Formación por
Área de Conocimiento.
Muscardi, D. C., & Cornelio, V. E. (2020). Co-teaching praxis as an interdisciplinary experience in Natural Sciences
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Introduction
The initial training courses for
Degree in Rural Education are still
recent, most of them having been
created since the MEC 2010 public
notice (Molina & Hage, 2015). In this
sense, even though several pedagogical
practices and epistemological debates
take place within the scope of these
courses, there is a need to disseminate
these experiences to disseminate,
expand and improve them. In response
to this need, we present this article.
We are new teachers of the
teaching staff of the Degree in Rural
Education (Ledoc/São Mateus),
qualification in Natural Sciences,
existing in the North University Center
of Espírito Santo, Federal University
of Espírito Santo. One of us has a
degree in Biological Sciences and a
PhD in Entomology from the Federal
University of Viçosa, and the other has
a degree in Chemistry and a PhD in
Sciences, with emphasis on Chemistry,
from the Federal University of São
Carlos. At Ledoc/São Mateus, we work
in the teaching of nature sciences
although we teach, more specifically,
disciplines connected to biology and
chemistry.
In the curricular matrix present
in the 2012 version of the Pedagogical
Course Project (PPC) of Ledoc/São
Mateus, the specific disciplines of the
Natural Sciences habilitation, linked to
the contents of biology, physics and
chemistry, are only located after the
fifth period. This organization,
considering that our course has eight
periods, has always caused us a certain
strangeness and concern, because we
understood that the contact of the
students with the specific contents of
their habilitation was delayed. Also, in
this version of the PPC, the
organization of the subjects in the
curricular matrix does not present, at
least in an intentional and evident way,
connections between the contents
approached in the same period, and we
consider that this implies a certain
restriction to interdisciplinary
approaches or specific pedagogical
practices that relate distinct disciplines.
Faced with these issues and from
discussions and exchanges of
experiences fostered by the challenges
posed to us by the teaching, we began
to analyze ways to foster
interdisciplinarity in the teaching-
learning process existing in our course,
especially that linked to the contents of
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our disciplines. This analysis resulted
in the elaboration and joint offer of a
discipline approaching, in an integrated
way, the contents of chemistry and
biology. We also defined that this
discipline would be taught
concomitantly by both of us, through
co-teaching, a didactic methodology
unprecedented in our course and which
reveals itself as a potential promoter of
interdisciplinarity in the classroom, in
order to materialize the formation by
area of knowledge.
In this sense, the context
experienced by our students, the
process of elaboration, planning and
teaching, as well as the challenges,
difficulties and overcoming relevant to
this discipline will be discussed in this
article. Thus, our goal is to collaborate,
in a positive and concrete way, for the
improvement of the teaching practice
present in the Degree courses in Rural
Education.
History: The creation of the Degree
Course in Rural Education at
CEUNES/UFES
The advance of the
economic/political/ideological
developmentalist project that arrived in
the state of Espírito Santo in the 1960s
and 1970s led to a great exodus of
peasant populations expropriated from
their lands/territories and,
simultaneously and as a consequence,
the emergence of the current peasant
organization existing in the state,
articulated to trade union and religious
organizations.
What can be observed in the
rural scenario, from these decades to
the present day, is that due to the
policies of encouraging a form of
agriculture focused on the external
market based on the monoculture
model of agribusiness, the countryside
has been increasingly characterized by
latifundia. As a result, the rural exodus
and the growth of the urban population
have intensified greatly, causing less
than 20%, out of a total of
approximately 3.5 million inhabitants
of the state, to live in the countryside
(Jones dos Santos Neves Institute,
2011). The analysis of the average
schooling of the rural population,
currently registered in only 8.3 years,
according to studies by the
IBGE/Pnad, made one of the goals of
the PNE to raise this number, since the
average schooling of the urban
population is 10.3 years.
According to data from the 2014
School Census, the Espírito Santo
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State Public Network has 115 schools
located in the rural perimeter, which
corresponds to 23% of the schools in
the entire public network, being: 63
multi-teachers Elementary Schools; 3
State Centers for Rural Comprehensive
Education; 9 High Schools; 18
Elementary and Secondary Schools
and 22 Elementary Schools. These
numbers include schools located in
areas of Agrarian Reform Settlements
and Camps; State Centers for Rural
Comprehensive Education - CEIERs;
schools organized through Pedagogy
of alternation - CEFFAS and schools
organized through
multiservice/multiple entities.
It is in this context that
Ledoc/São Mateus is inserted, with the
priority objective of forming educators
who act, or intend to act, in the
countryside schools and other
formation spaces, both in schools and
social movements. As a higher
education course, Rural Education has
its roots in pilot experiences carried
out in four Brazilian universities
(UFMG, UnB, UFBA and UFS) in
mid-2007 (Antunes-Rocha & Martins,
2009; Molina & Hage, 2015). Driven
by these experiences and by social
movements, in 2008 the Ministry of
Education launched edicts for the
creation and implementation of initial
training courses in Degree in Rural
Education. One of the institutions
selected was the Federal University of
Espírito Santo, which offers the
Degree in Rural Education in two
campuses: Goiabeiras and São Mateus.
In São Mateus, Ledoc is part of the
courses present in the North University
Center of Espírito Santo (CEUNES).
CEUNES, founded in 1990, comprises
approximately 2000 undergraduate and
graduate students from the states of
Bahia and Minas Gerais, in addition to
Espírito Santo, and is the main public
education institution in the north of the
state of Espírito Santo (PPC of the
Degree Course in Rural Education -
CEUNES/UFES, version 2019).
Ledoc/São Mateus has two
degrees, Natural Sciences and Human
and Social Sciences, and had its first
class admitted in 2014. Our course
aims to meet, as a priority, the strong
social demand of peasant communities
(family farmers, settlers, and agrarian
reform campers, quilombola,
fishermen) in the northern regions of
Espírito Santo, southern Bahia and
eastern Minas Gerais.
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Teacher training by knowledge area
Thinking about the degree course
in Rural Education requires analyzing
the tense encounter between the
different formats and specificities of
two contexts: that of the Master´s
Degree and that of Degree in Rural
Education. Thus, we risk saying that as
in any other Degree in Rural Education
course, our course also had and has its
challenges. One of them is to conceive
training by knowledge area as one of
the political-pedagogical advances that
require a deep analysis of the previous
conceptions that teachers bring from
their initial training, and that demand
changes, above all, in their teaching
practice (Britto, 2015).
We understand that training by
knowledge area needs, among other
aspects, the overcoming of barriers
inherent in the creation of a
pedagogical project, both in the initial
training of educators at the university,
and in basic education in the
countryside schools (Caldart, 2011).
One of these barriers is, for example,
the difficulty in creating an
interdisciplinary dynamic among the
proposed disciplines, materialized both
in their menus and in their teaching
methodology (Britto, 2015; Britto &
Silva, 2015; Caldart, 2011).
The purpose of a curriculum
organized by areas of knowledge is to
overcome the fragmented training
based on the disciplinary concept, so
well-known in the Brazilian basic
education model, and to train, in
addition to a critical educator capable
of collaborating in the political and
social transformation of the reality of
the countryside in Brazil, educators
prepared for interdisciplinary teaching
(Molina, 2017). In this way, one of the
challenges of the Ledoc is that the
teachers of the course, understand that,
starting from their initial fragmented
training courses, they need to provide
training disciplines by area of
knowledge, so that our educators and
educators are in fact prepared to
exercise teaching by area in the
countryside schools (Britto, 2017;
Molina, 2015).
In this sense, these pedagogical
challenges are reflected in components
such as the curriculum, the contents
worked and the teaching methodology
(Britto, 2017; Caldart, 2011).
Historically, the proposition by
area of knowledge existing at Ledoc
was made considering the example of
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Pedagogy, which enables the teacher to
work with early childhood education
and the initial years of elementary
school in all areas of knowledge.
However, even though there were good
reports of experiences with "Pedagogy
of the Land" courses, other alternatives
in other areas started to be discussed,
still with the concern for a broad
education, which besides teaching, also
considered the reality of the
countryside. At the same time, the
existing models for disciplinary
courses were also discarded, due to
Ledoc's specificities and for the reason
that many schools in the countryside
do not have teachers of different
subjects available (Caldart, 2009;
Caldart, 2011).
The debate to arrive at the
qualification by area of knowledge is
still maturing and taking shape. What
is happening is the attempt to work on
the relationship between areas and
disciplines in the most appropriate way
for the reality of the countryside,
thinking about the organization of the
curriculum of basic education schools,
the initial training course for educators,
and how pedagogical practices could
work on disciplinary curricula and
overcome existing barriers (Molina,
2017; Rodrigues, 2010).
In this context, interdisciplinarity
and transdisciplinarity represent the
ultimate goal of training by area of
knowledge, since they are in line with
the training goals present at Ledoc
(Frigotto, 2008). Although
interdisciplinarity does not necessarily
eliminate disciplines, it concretely
proposes an articulation and dialogue
between them, a response to the
fragmentation built with time (Gadotti,
1999). Interdisciplinarity and, beyond
that, transdisciplinarity are approaches
that make possible the realization of
pedagogical actions that are in
accordance with a search that
substitutes compartmentalization for
integration, connection, and dialogue
(Morin, 2007; Santos, 2001). As its
name indicates, interdisciplinarity
refers to the action through which an
effort is made to correlate disciplines,
discover what can be common among
them, and thus promote the connection
of knowledge. Transdisciplinarity, on
the other hand, indicates that which is
at the same time between, through and
beyond the disciplines, and which can
even produce new disciplines
(Santomé, 1998).
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Several pedagogical experiences
in Basic Rural Education propose the
use of interdisciplinarity as a way to
defragment curricular contents from
the collective construction of
disciplines, providing the transposition
of barriers through different
pedagogical actions in the classroom
(Molina, 2017). Such experiences
demonstrate that interdisciplinarity is a
possible reality, and its presence is also
necessary in the initial training courses
for educators, in order to realize the
commitment of Ledocs assumed, since
its conception, with the demands of
peasants (Britto & Silva, 2015; Molina,
2015).
The great challenge of
interdisciplinarity is not only to
guarantee moments of
contextualization of contents, but also
to dialogue and build, together, the
concepts of the different areas of
knowledge, uniting theory and
practice, integrated in the same totality
of pedagogical work. In this way, these
factors consolidate the training per area
of knowledge as one of the main
challenges experienced by the
Graduates in Rural Education (Molina,
2015). Thus, we understand co-
teaching as a potential didactic
methodology to overcome this
challenge, promoting interdisciplinary
teaching and learning at Ledoc.
The creation of the subjects
In the specific cut of the
qualification in Natural Sciences of
Ledoc/São Mateus, the Pedagogical
Course Project (PPC) in force until the
year 2018 provided only one discipline
in the area of chemistry and two
disciplines in the area of biology, both
taught in different semesters/periods.
In addition to the compulsory subjects,
the students necessarily needed (and
still need) to take optional subjects so
that the credits are paid at the end.
Motivated by the mentioned context,
allied to the desire to initiate the
practice of co-teaching as a strategy to
materialize the training per area of
knowledge, we opted to create two
optional subjects, which would be
taught simultaneously at the same hour
and same place, related to the areas of
chemistry and biology.
Creating two disciplines instead
of one was a decision made since the
university system did not understand
that we would both spend the same
time in the preparation, development
and execution of classes, and
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evaluation activities. On the contrary,
if only one subject was created for two
teachers to teach, the workload would
be divided in half.
The first challenge when creating
the disciplines was to think about the
menus so that they could dialogue with
each other, as much as possible, to give
concreteness and meaning to the
proposed interdisciplinary co-teaching.
Additionally, since they were
educators who had not yet had any
discipline from these two areas, we
were concerned with starting the
construction of the concepts through a
solid basis, that is, we had the
assumption of starting the discussion
based on basic contents. Thinking
about this aspect, the most basic
content that could be approached, and
that dialogues chemistry and biology,
is the emergence of the universe and
life. At the appearance of the universe
the first chemical elements formed by
atomic particles appear, and the
combination of these elements with the
existence of water, an essential
condition for life, made possible the
appearance of life in its simplest form.
It is interesting to point out that in
biology textbooks, commonly, the first
topic to be addressed is the "chemistry
of life". In this topic the contents
worked are about atoms, chemical
elements and molecules that constitute
cells and organisms. This intrinsic
relationship between these two
sciences resurfaces in other specific
biology contents, such as genetics and
physiology, reaffirming the integration
and interconnectivity of knowledge.
However, because they are abstract
contents, there is usually a great
difficulty in understanding on the part
of the students, especially because they
do not perceive the intrinsic
relationship between the two areas of
knowledge dealt with disciplinarily in
basic education, and they do not
perceive a direct relationship between
these contents and their daily lives.
From this, the disciplines "Introduction
to Cell Biology" and "Introduction to
the Chemistry of Life" were thought
and created, with a workload of 60
theoretical hours each.
In the menu of the discipline
"Introduction to Cell Biology" we
planned to address the origin of the
universe, the earth and life; the first
elements and the first forms of life; the
fundamental characteristics of the cell;
the biomolecules, bio membrane,
organelles and cell metabolism; the
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cell types and their representations;
cell division and the transfer of genetic
information; some biological processes
present in everyday peasant life. To
dialogue with these concepts, the menu
of the discipline "Introduction to the
Chemistry of Life" proposed the origin
of life and the universe: the emergence
of chemical elements, their abundance
and properties; atoms, ions and
molecules: forms and structures; the
biomolecules: amino acids, peptides
and proteins, nucleotides and nucleic
acids, carbohydrates, lipids, enzymes
and the organic functions present in
these biomolecules; the types of bonds
and chemical reactions involved in
cellular metabolism; the molecules and
chemical reactions present in daily
peasant life. The preparation of the
classes, as well as the elaboration of
the menus, was also a collective
construction, something much more
challenging and that demands much
more time than the individual
planning. Since the classes were held
once a month, all the classes, tasks,
and activities of University Time (UT)
and Community Time (CT) were
thought and developed together and,
therefore, at least three days were
available for such activities. For each
stage of the class at least one activity
for UT and one activity for TC were
prepared. Everything duly analyzed
and corrected by both teachers.
At the time these two optional
subjects were being created for the
PPC in force until 2018, we were also
forwarding the reformulation and
creation of a new Pedagogical Project,
which was still going through the
elaboration of curricular subjects and
organizations. At the end of the
creation of "Introduction to Cell
Biology" and "Introduction to the
Chemistry of Life" it was realized how
important it was to organize the
disciplines in the same semesters, in
order to propitiate the dialogue
between the contents of different areas,
not being limited, of course, to the
disciplines of biology and chemistry.
From this experience, the new PPC of
the course, which began to take effect
in the first semester of 2019, counts
with the presence of these two
disciplines as mandatory disciplines,
created until then as optional, which
will be taught for the third period of
the qualification in Natural Sciences.
Our co-teaching experiences
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To present our co-teaching
experiences, we will consider the
discipline as unique since, even though
we have two menus, all aspects related
to the subjects have been treated in an
integrated way, with the classes being
taught by both teachers at the same
time. To better guide the students, we
have even named the discipline
"Introduction to cellular biology and
chemistry of life". Thus, in this chapter
we have chosen to debate, in one topic,
the classes and activities proposed to
the students and, in another topic, the
reflections and challenges regarding
the planning and accomplishment of
the classes and activities of the
discipline.
The classes
The whole discipline was built
together. This construction, obviously,
is more challenging than a solitary,
individual elaboration, and this will
also reverberate in the elaboration of
the classes themselves. The contents,
methods, resources, and other
strategies are systematically discussed
and debated beforehand, which
demands more preparation time and an
elaborate vision on the importance,
pertinence and understanding of what
is essential. During the construction of
the menus, as well as in the preparation
and administration of the classes, there
was always the concern of starting the
contents from macroscopic aspects,
finishing in microscopic and symbolic
aspects, more abstract in the eyes of
our students. We consider the different
contents and the way they relate to the
classes, and from them we choose the
best methodologies and didactic
resources. We always include the
peasant reality in the classes, which
were planned one by one. Here we will
present the classes offered in two UTs
experienced by the educators, pointing
out the way of elaboration, teaching
and evaluation of the classes and
contents. Our proposal, in terms of
class preparation, was to include at
least one evaluation activity to be
carried out at the UT and one to be
carried out at the CT.
The first UT had the objective of
presenting and discussing the theories
of the emergence of chemical elements
and life, in addition to presenting the
atoms, ions, chemical elements,
molecules and periodic table, as well
as animal, plant and microbial cells,
and the basic differences between
unicellular and multicellular
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organisms. Our proposal was that
educators and students would perceive
the universal constitution of living
beings: formed by the same chemical
elements from the beginning. To this
end, we elaborated two moments of
class.
For the first moment of class we
planned, from the previous evaluation,
the use of two videos available on
YouTube that address, in a
concatenated and subsequent way, the
theories of the emergence of chemical
elements, the Earth and the first forms
of life. During the previous evaluation
we observed that it was not necessary
to use the videos in their entirety and
we determined the parts to be worked
on, as well as the interventions to be
carried out, at specific times, in order
to stimulate the debate of the
information presented. After choosing,
analyzing and planning the use of the
videos, we elaborated a diagnosis, to
be applied before and right after the
videos, whose objective was to know,
from the students, their previous
conception about the existence of
chemistry, if there was chemistry when
the universe appeared, when life
appeared, where and in what way.
For the second moment of class,
to be carried out after the videos and
the diagnosis, we elaborated a
dialogical theoretical class, whose
objective was to present the organisms
and the way they are organized (in
cells, tissues, systems) to connect to
the different existing cellular types and
advance the knowledge towards ions,
atoms and molecules. We added to this
theoretical part a brief video about the
atom and the projection of images to
exemplify the contents to be debated
and give more concreteness. For being
a more abstract content, we chose to
plan this theoretical part starting from
the scale observable with the naked
eye and moving forward to the
smallest scale (atoms and ions), in
order to provide students with the
perception that these contents were
related.
Finally, we elaborated an
evaluative activity to be applied at the
end of the class, with the objective of
fixing the content discussed in class
and relate it to the peasant reality. We
asked, for example: how to explain the
similarity in the chemical composition
of living organisms? Where are the
chemical elements present in your
community? Explain the emergence of
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the chemical elements. Some
questions, with the same purpose of
fixing the learning, were elaborated for
the realization by the students in the
TC.
Thus, in class, we presented the
content that would be approached and,
briefly, we held a small debate. After
this introductory moment, we started
the first moment of the class applying
the diagnosis. We informed the
students that the diagnosis did not have
an evaluative nature, but that it would
be important for us to analyze the
results of our teaching actions. In the
sequence, we carried out the lesson
with the videos and asked them to
answer the diagnosis again after the
end of the debates. In the second
moment, we presented the theoretical
contents with the use of multimedia
projector and, although not planned, in
this part of the class we also performed
some group dynamics.
During the first application of the
diagnosis the students felt
uncomfortable and insecure with their
own answers. The diagnosis caused a
stir in the class, which showed great
interest in the content from the contact
with the questions. A change in the
answers of the diagnosis is noticeable
when we compare the initial and final
application. Notably, the answers that
initially were more evasive were
replaced by placements that were more
coherent with the current scientific
knowledge and, in this way, we
considered that the use of the videos
was positive for learning. In addition,
some diagnostic questions were taken
up by the students during our
interventions in the presentation of the
videos, stimulating the debate and
favoring the amplification and fixing
of the contents.
However, in the second moment
of class, during the theoretical
presentation of the contents, we
observed that the subjects were less
interconnected than in the first moment
and we had less chances to carry out
interventions in each other's speeches.
In addition, the students had some
difficulty in understanding some of the
contents, such as the arrangement of
particles in an atom (protons, neutrons,
and electrons), for example. Faced
with this difficulty, although not
previously planned, we used a dynamic
in which students represented protons,
neutrons, and electrons, and were
disposed in the classroom space and
oriented to move in order to imitate the
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atomic organization. Despite the
limitations of the dynamics, for
example the impossibility of
representing the three spatial
dimensions, it allowed the students to
reach the understanding of the content
from the concreteness given by the
representation of the atomic
organization with their own bodies.
Other similar interventions, although
simpler, were performed whenever we
observed difficulties in understanding
the content. The understanding of
abstract contents is a challenge for the
students, and we consider that the
dynamics are good alternatives for this
knowledge to be built in a more
concrete way, so that it can make sense
to the students.
The second UT aimed to work
the content of "chemistry of life". The
proposal was to approach the
macromolecules essential to all living
beings (or biomolecules) as well as
their functions in organisms and the
organic functions found in the structure
of these macromolecules (alcohol,
ketone, ester, etc.). Our goal was that
educators could recognize that they are
present in specific macromolecules
living organisms, and that they also
compose various materials present in
our daily lives, such as agrochemicals.
Furthermore, we aimed to present
genetic information as a set of
molecules, atoms, ions, so that they
could perceive the possibility of
interference (such as transgene), to be
addressed in the future. For this UT we
prepared two moments of class
between which we divided the content
to be approached.
For the first moment of class, we
planned an evaluation activity to be
applied before starting the new
content, to rescue the knowledge
previously approached and necessary
to understand what would be treated.
In addition, we previously asked the
students to bring packaging with labels
of different products to be used in this
moment of the class. We elaborated a
dialogic theoretical class to be realized
with the use of a multimedia projector,
whose content was centered on the
macromolecules, their functions in the
organisms and organic functions found
in the structure of these
macromolecules (alcohol, ketone,
ester, etc.).
For the second moment of class,
we planned a dialogical theoretical
class addressing the molecular
structure of nucleic acids,
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demonstrating the existence of atoms
and ions in these molecules. In
addition, we have elaborated an
evaluative activity to be carried out at
the end of this moment of class as well
as an activity to be carried out at the
TC.
Thus, in the classroom, we
initially applied the evaluative activity
that caused a stir in the class. We had
already informed in the previous UT
that this activity would be applied at
the beginning of the next UT, and that
the objective would be to rescue
contents. We made a brief debate from
the questions present in the activity
and we started the class with the use of
the labels. Each student read aloud the
label they had brought, and we listed
some molecules present on the board.
From these molecules we started the
relative content, relating the label
molecule to a macromolecule to be
studied, for instance corn starch and
carbohydrate. We used many
molecules images to facilitate the
comprehension of the content and we
intensified the dialogic approach to get
a wide involvement. During the class,
we perceived high integration of
content, mutual interventions among us
teachers were constant and dialogue
and debate with students strengthened
interaction and interdisciplinarity.
The debates were intense, and we
observed the need to give more
emphasis to the content on
macromolecules, especially due to the
presentation of pesticide labels brought
by the students. Thus, we opted to
finish the class with the application of
the evaluation activity linked to the
content of macromolecules and work
the nucleic acids in the next UT.
We are guided not only in the
enlargement, but also in the connection
between the knowledge treated in the
subject, so we intend in our activities,
whenever possible, the use of the
knowledge previously discussed in the
classes for their realization.
As an example, we present here
one of the integrating activities that the
students have done on macromolecules
(figures 1 and 2). Our objective with
this activity was the recognition of
macromolecules (carbohydrate,
protein, lipid and nucleic acid) as well
as the identification of the organic
functions discussed in class (of which
alcohol, aldehydes and ketones, ester,
ether, carboxylic acids and derivatives,
amines, etc. are part) and to verify that
these functions are also present in
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other molecules besides the
macromolecules. It is valid to
emphasize that for the elaboration of
this and all the activities proposed to
the students we carry out, together, the
reflection on the objectives of the
activity in relation to the contents
approached.
The Sciences of Nature have
been the subject of debate in the Rural
Education, especially regarding the
challenges related to epistemology,
understanding and teaching of
scientific knowledge in this area of
knowledge (Souza, 2012), a great
challenge to be overcome. In view of
this, we understand that the scientific
language cannot be stolen from the
graduate student in Rural Education,
since this language should guide
his/her future teaching action. Thus, in
our classes and activities, although we
deal with the peasant reality, we
dialogue with our students in the
scientific language, both oral and
written, helping them to familiarize
themselves, internalize and also to
consciously reproduce this language in
their speeches.
Reflecting on our co-teacher praxis
Offering a discipline in co-
teaching is an unprecedented
experience for us teachers, both in our
course and in our teaching experiences
and, as such, has brought us numerous
challenges. We will deal here with
some of the main aspects that involved
the planning of the classes, from the
determination of the content to be
worked on to the choice of
methodology and didactic material and
resources.
During the collaborative class
planning process, we reflect and
dialogue about our conceptions, biased
by our specific training, about content
and methods, and of course, the
implications of this for learning.
Figure 1- Extract of the fixation activity performed by Ledoc/São Mateus 7th
period students.
Figure 2 - Extract of the fixation activity performed by Ledoc/São Mateus 7th
period students.
Source: the authors.
Source: the authors.
We try, always, to transpose the
fragmented perspective of knowledge
(divided between biological sciences and
chemistry), and we realize that this
transposition implies, besides a holistic
vision about knowledge, empathy and
humility. The collaborative work is not
simple, it requires from the teachers
involved the understanding that all areas
are equally relevant, that there is no
knowledge superior or inferior to another
and that it is impossible to exhaust them in
an initial training course. Thus, during this
process we discuss various aspects of the
scientific knowledge we have worked on,
ranging from the terminologies used,
through representations with images to the
conception adopted, on the same subject,
in the different scientific visions we have
experienced. As we go through this path,
we notice the concreteness of Paulo
Freire's (2002) speech, when he says: "who
teaches learns by teaching and who learns
teaches by learning" and materializes, in
this speech, the conscience of the teacher
as an unfinished human being.
Besides this aspect, we notice that
our individual praxis is also a challenge
when adopting co-teaching. Although we
know that it is impossible to have
homogeneity in the teaching action of two
different teachers, considering our
personal, academic and professional
individual formations, we try to reflect in
what way we can adapt our teaching
methods. We understand that quite
different and divergent methodologies
would not be so useful, and could cause
obstacles to the teaching process,
especially in the interpretation of the
students about the content worked. Thus,
we reflected and dialogued after our
classes about the methodology adopted and
its possible implications, taking into
consideration some dialogues we have with
the class about this aspect. Our goal is not
to homogenize our teaching action, but to
enhance our dissimilarities, which are
often positive aspects of teaching, to
complement each other and not to diverge.
We understand, in this way, that in this
way we will potentialize our collaborative
teaching practice, besides favoring a
unique construction of our experiential
knowledge (Tardiff, 2002). Our presence
and interaction always, inside the
classroom, allows us to have a unique look
at each other, fostering a reflection that
would hardly be possible under an
individual and solitary look.
Finally, although the challenges are
not exhausted here, the choice of the
bibliographies to be used was a
considerable obstacle, perhaps the most
relevant. There is an enormous difficulty,
in our academic environment, to find
unified and integrated materials that are
adequate and accessible to the students of
the Degree in Rural Education when
dealing with the Natural Sciences. Nor in
our academic background, even if we are
graduates, have materials in this format
been presented to us and disseminated,
which translates into a difficulty apart. In
this sense, we treat bibliographical
references with special attention in what
concerns the adequacy of contents in front
of the two sciences worked in an
interdisciplinary way. We worked with
different references that were in dialogue
because we did not have access (or
production) to a single, universal, and
interdisciplinary reference. We gave
guidance to students to avoid possible
misunderstandings and to favor the broad
use of the material made available, since
we analyzed the materials previously. We
have made important and necessary
adjustments to the terminologies, image
representations, interpretations and other
obstacles that may be encountered in the
materials. In our classes, we use this
difficulty to discuss with students the
limitations and potential of textbooks used
in basic education. We analyzed the
fragmentation observed in textbooks and
discussed how the teacher of basic
education could overcome this difficulty.
Our intention is that, in the future, we may
have a unique material available to the
students.
Final considerations
It was from the proposal of training
by area of knowledge, one of the great
differentials of the Degree Course in Rural
Education, that the motivation for this
experience was to break barriers that
constantly fragment knowledge and insist
on opposing this training proposal. Based
on an interdisciplinary proposal and
reinforcing that we understand it as a first
step towards the deconstruction of the
fragmentation of curricular contents and
pedagogical actions, this report sought to
present a real possibility of one of the
aspects that reaffirm training by area of
knowledge: co-teaching.
The construction of this discipline,
although the existence of disciplines is the
subject of debate (Chassot, 2016),
especially when it points in the direction of
interdisciplinary training and by area of
knowledge (Caldart, 2011), represents for
us a great advance. We have broken many
obstacles, starting with ourselves, to build
it and offer it collaboratively. These
obstacles range from the interdisciplinary
construction of the contents to the
bureaucratic aspects of the educational
institution for the consolidation of the
offer. Individual barriers had to be
overcome because as teachers of different
areas many concepts and terminologies
were outdated in relation to areas that are
not our domain.
However, as classes progressed, we
realized that students were enthusiastic
about co-teaching. In a brief dialogue
during the classes, we noticed that the
students value this proposal, identify the
interdisciplinarity present in the discipline,
and glimpse the possibility of working
with the content in this way, both in co-
teaching and in an individual but
interdisciplinary approach.
The collective construction and the
time of dedication that we invested
together in the elaboration of the classes
touched on and implied that we worked
with respect, empathy, understanding and
partnership in teamwork. In addition to the
challenges faced by institutional and
academic barriers, co-teaching, which is
still not understood by many professors, is
proving to be an important tool to begin
the materialization of interdisciplinarity in
training by area of knowledge.
We reaffirm that the experience of
interdisciplinary co-teaching presented in
this text also represents the possibility of
this initiative being transposed to basic
education, through the educators we will
train. Even in schools in the countryside,
we have also verified the disciplinary
format, reinforced by the didactic material
used, which follows the same fragmented
model and not by area of knowledge.
To conclude, we emphasize that this
study signals the first step of an initiative
to put into practice interdisciplinarity as a
pedagogical practice of two teachers of the
Degree Course in Rural Education.
However, we are aware that much still
needs to be done. One of the goals, which
is already being thought of in practice for
these disciplines and will be portrayed in
later texts, is the adoption of
methodologies and dynamics in classes
that consider thematic axes of rural
education. We conceived this perspective
as essential for the whole teaching and
learning process to make sense to the
student, because it considers his/her daily
life and makes it possible for him/her to
see, and in fact be, the subject of this
process.
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Article Information
Received on October 30th, 2019
Accepted on July 17th, 2020
Published on November, 25th, 2020
Author Contributions: The author were responsible for
the designing, delineating, analyzing and interpreting the
data, production of the manuscript, critical revision of the
content and approval of the final version published.
Conflict of Interest: None reported.
Orcid
Dalana Campos Muscardi
http://orcid.org/0000-0001-7936-7363
Vivian Estevam Cornelio
http://orcid.org/0000-0002-1003-228X
How to cite this article
APA
Muscardi, D. C., & Cornelio, V. E. (2020). Co-teaching
praxis as an interdisciplinary experience in Natural
Sciences teaching. Rev. Bras. Educ. Camp., 5, e3837.
http://dx.doi.org/10.20873/uft.rbec.e3837
ABNT
MUSCARDI, D. C.; CORNELIO, V. E. Co-teaching praxis
as an interdisciplinary experience in Natural Sciences
teaching. Rev. Bras. Educ. Camp., Tocantinópolis, v. 5,
e3837, 2020. http://dx.doi.org/10.20873/uft.rbec.e3837