Revista Brasileira de Educação do Campo
The Brazilian Scientific Journal of Rural Education
ARTIGO/ARTICLE/ARTÍCULO
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.20873/uft.rbec.e7240
Tocantinópolis/Brasil
v. 5
e7240
10.20873/uft.rbec.e7240
2020
ISSN: 2525-4863
1
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
Conceptions of the importance of Science Education in
basic education by undergraduates of a Rural Education
Degree course
Renata José de Melo
1
, Fernanda Welter Adams
2
, Simara Maria Tavares Nunes
3
,
1, 2, 3
Universidade Federal de Catalão - UFCat. UAE de Educação. Avenida Dr. Lamartine P. Avelar nº 1120, Setor
Universitário. Catalão - GO. Brasil.
Author for correspondence: renatacatcity@hotmail.com
ABSTRACT. Education seeks to follow scientific and
technological changes, in order to provide a critical formation of
the subjects. Teaching of Natural Sciences is essential for
students to interpret the world and be active citizens in society.
Rural students also need this critical training. Thus, our
objective is to analyse the conception of the importance of the
Teaching of Natural Sciences in Basic Education of
undergraduate students of the Course in Education in the Field
of the Federal University of Goiás/Regional Catalão. For the
integral training of the target audience subjects of rural
education, is perceived the need for a differentiated initial
training, which guarantees the undergraduate students to become
critical subjects. This work starts from a qualitative research that
used questionnaires for data collection, being applied to nine
undergraduates, about to obtain licensee degree. They believed
that Science Education is important for Basic Education, as it
provides knowledge that allows the understanding of the world
and the responsible and active performance of students in
society. During their training, the undergraduate students
reported that they had the opportunity to experience the
contextualization of scientific knowledge, enabling them, for a
quality teaching, in order to also train students in rural education
in a critical and contextualized way.
Keywords: Science Education, Rural education, Teacher
Training, Criticity.
Melo, R. J., Adams, F. W., & Nunes, S. M. T. (2020). Conceptions of the importance of Science Education in basic education by
pre-service teachers of a Rural Education Degree course…
Tocantinópolis/Brasil
v. 5
e7240
10.20873/uft.rbec.e7240
2020
ISSN: 2525-4863
2
Concepções da importância do Ensino de Ciências na
educação básica por licenciandos de um curso de
Educação do Campo
RESUMO. A educação busca acompanhar as mudanças
científicas e tecnológicas, de forma a proporcionar uma
formação crítica dos sujeitos. O Ensino de Ciências da Natureza
é fundamental para os educandos interpretarem o mundo e
serem cidadãos ativos na sociedade. Os alunos do campo,
também necessitam dessa formação crítica. Assim, objetiva-se
analisar a concepção da importância do Ensino de Ciências da
Natureza na Educação Básica de graduandos do Curso de
Licenciatura em Educação do Campo da Universidade Federal
de Goiás/Regional Catalão. Para formação integral dos sujeitos
público alvo da Educação do Campo percebe-se a necessidade
de uma formação inicial diferenciada que garanta aos
licenciandos se tornem sujeitos críticos. Este trabalho parte de
uma pesquisa qualitativa que utilizou questionários para a coleta
de dados, sendo aplicado a nove licenciandos, prestes a se
formarem. Estes acreditavam que o Ensino de Ciências tem
importância para a Educação Básica, ao proporcionarem
conhecimentos que permitem a compreensão do mundo e a
atuação responsável e ativa dos alunos na sociedade. Durante
sua formação os licenciandos relataram que tiveram a
oportunidade de vivenciar a contextualização do conhecimento
científico, habilitando-os, para uma docência de qualidade, de
modo a também formarem alunos da Educação do Campo de
maneira crítica e contextualizada.
Palavras-chave: Ensino de Ciências, Educação do Campo,
Formação docente, Criticidade.
Melo, R. J., Adams, F. W., & Nunes, S. M. T. (2020). Conceptions of the importance of Science Education in basic education by
pre-service teachers of a Rural Education Degree course…
Tocantinópolis/Brasil
v. 5
e7240
10.20873/uft.rbec.e7240
2020
ISSN: 2525-4863
3
Concepciones de la importancia de la Educación en
Ciencias en la educación básica por licenciantes de un
curso de Educación Rural
RESUMEN. La educación busca acompañar los cambios
científicos y tecnológicos, a fin de proporcionar una formación
crítica de los sujetos. La enseñanza de las ciencias naturales es
esencial para que los estudiantes interpreten el mundo y sean
ciudadanos activos en la sociedad. Los estudiantes rurales
también necesitan esta capacitación crítica. Por lo tanto, el
objetivo es analizar la concepción de la importancia de la
Enseñanza de las Ciencias Naturales en Educación Básica de
estudiantes de pregrado del Curso de Educación Rural de la
Universidad Federal de Goiás/Regional Catalão. Para la
formación integral de las asignaturas destinatarias del público de
educación rural se percibe la necesidad de una formación inicial
diferenciada que garantice que los estudiantes de pregrado se
conviertan en asignaturas críticas. Este trabajo es parte de una
investigación cualitativa que utilizó cuestionarios para la
recopilación de datos, que se aplicaron a nueve graduados, a
punto de graduarse. Estos creían que la educación científica es
importante para la educación básica, ya que proporcionan
conocimiento que permite la comprensión del mundo y el
desempeño responsable y activo de los estudiantes en la
sociedad. Durante su capacitación, los estudiantes universitarios
informaron que tuvieron la oportunidad de experimentar la
contextualización del conocimiento científico, lo que les
permitió, para una enseñanza de calidad, con el fin de capacitar
también a los estudiantes en educación rural de una manera
crítica y contextualizada.
Palabras clave: Enseñanza de la Ciencia, Educación Rural,
Formación del Profesorado, La Criticidad.
Melo, R. J., Adams, F. W., & Nunes, S. M. T. (2020). Conceptions of the importance of Science Education in basic education by
pre-service teachers of a Rural Education Degree course…
Tocantinópolis/Brasil
v. 5
e7240
10.20873/uft.rbec.e7240
2020
ISSN: 2525-4863
4
Introduction
We live in a dynamic world,
characterized by constant updates and
transformations, where everything is in a
constant process of change and
improvement. We do not handle with a
perspective of absolut and unquestionable
knowledge, but one influenced by the
globalization, the scientific and
technological evolution, besides
multimedia and the concept of processes.
Everything happens on a space-time tissue
and the world is simultaneously informed,
interacts and reacts, compatible with its
concernments (Silva, 2010). In this
transformation process one can find the
Education, specially the Science
Education, on which day after day, a new
discovery is reported: “Science is a
complex activity, historically and
collectively built, that influences and is
influenced by social, technological,
cultural, ethical and political reasons”.
(Andery et al., 2004, p. 24).
In this point of view, the teaching-
learning process must follow these
transformations and knowledge of Natural
Sciences is fundamental to interpret our
actual world. Facing that, the Science
Education would not be useful only to
support student to comprehend the world,
but also to add other ways to interpret it, so
student can handle scientific knowledge
and build a critical and collaborative
consciousness.
On that sense, in Science Education,
one should work with scholar scientific
content and its conceptual,
interdisciplinary and contextual
relationships, always observing student
evolution (Vygotsky, 1991). Considering
Chassot (2010), Science Education is
important for a person into a school
training process, among others, by the fact
that this knowledge gives to a citizen, basic
information and expertise to analyze and
judge science and technology, using good
arguments, besides ambiental concernment
(Chassot, 2010).
Science Education refers to a field of
knowledge and a group of activities that
offers a scientific view of real world and
develops reasoning capabilities even on
tender ages ... Elementary schools have the
social role to put its children on contact to
a knowledge called scientific knowledge.
(Arce, Silva & Varotto, 2011, p. 9).
The Common National Curricular
Basis (BNCC) (Brasil, 2018) points that
learning natural sciences goes beyond to
learn conceptual content. BNCC also
invokes the discussion of the role of
scientific and technological knowledge on
social organization, ambiental issues, on
human health and cultural construction, in
other words to analyze the relationships
Melo, R. J., Adams, F. W., & Nunes, S. M. T. (2020). Conceptions of the importance of Science Education in basic education by
pre-service teachers of a Rural Education Degree course…
Tocantinópolis/Brasil
v. 5
e7240
10.20873/uft.rbec.e7240
2020
ISSN: 2525-4863
5
between science, technology, society and
ambient (CTSA approach). In this sense
learning process must prioritize the
application of this knowledge into the
student’s life, directing to a protagonism of
the individual, when facing daily issues
(Brasil, 2018).
But how to implement Science
Education on elementary and high levels,
in a way it can permit student to interpret
the world in a critical and responsible way,
if we do not modify teacher’s praxis. Bizzo
(2009) emphasizes that the crucial point
for teaching is to recognize the possibility
of understanding scientific knowledge and
its importance in the training of our
students, once it can effectively contribute
to its improvement. So, the scientific
knowledge combined to Science Education
can construct relations, citizenship,
responsible both consumers and
technology users (Viecheneski & Carletto,
2012).
In Brazil, the Science Education was
influenced by the relations of power
stablished between scientific institutions,
by the education’s role on spreading that
knowledge and by the conflict between old
and actual careers, “resulting from new job
relations raised on contemporary societies,
focused on information and consumption”.
(Marandino, 2005, p. 162). Mandarino
(2005) affirm that the scientific knowledge
spread is characterized by huge challenges
and clashes, especially on polemics
regarding Science Education objectives.
Considering the National Curricular
Parameters – PCN (Brasil, 1997) Science
Education is to observe, to experiment and
to build. Is to make the student feel
yourself and know the world where we
live, understanding and respecting the life
and executing the received knowledge to
preserve the life.
The education offered to countryside
citizens, as well as the offered to city
citizens, also lacks a critical scientific
literacy to students residing the countryside
(Marandino, 2005, p. 162). Countryside
Education, originated into the social
movements struggle, clearly brings the
intention of the development of an
equalitarian society with social justice
(Molina & Freitas, 2011). So, in regard to
Science Education into Countryside
Education is important that “… the future
countryside teachers learn to teach life
sciences, based on student’s experience
and significance context of the community
where they live and teach”. (Lima, Paula &
Santos, 2009, p. 114). But, to teaching-
learning process can make sense to
students, its need overcome the traditional
teaching vision, supported on transmitting
and receiving its contents and incite
Melo, R. J., Adams, F. W., & Nunes, S. M. T. (2020). Conceptions of the importance of Science Education in basic education by
pre-service teachers of a Rural Education Degree course…
Tocantinópolis/Brasil
v. 5
e7240
10.20873/uft.rbec.e7240
2020
ISSN: 2525-4863
6
students to think about societies issues,
starting from a scientific knowledge basis.
To Britto (1994), when studying
science topics, it is important that the
teacher conduct the student, not only to
realize changes in nature, but to feel the
effects that can influence people’s life.
Frigotto (2011) points the Countryside
Education, due to its origins and specially
experiences into MST (a social movement
focused on agricultural lands distribution)
settlements, is joined to pedagogical
practices that “… do not start on school,
but on society, and back to itself, where
school is a fundamental space” on relations
between the knowledge raised by social
practices and the scientific knowledge.
To guarantee a change on the way to
teach sciences, we must to change the
earlier phases of teacher formation, starting
from the discussion on methodologies and
didactic resources that guarantee teaching-
learning process, until discuss Countryside
Education specificities. In this sense:
To form teachers of sciences not only
for acting at countryside, using it only to
contextualize its instruction, but to act on
the Countryside Education – effectively
considering its principles, specificities and
demands – requires a compulsory
articulation between the consolidated
Education field, the Science Education and
the emergent Countryside Education
(Brick et. al., 2014, p. 30).
Starting from this reflection, the
objective of this work is to present
conceptions from undergraduate students
of the graduation course on Countryside
Education of the Federal University of
Goiás, Catalão Campus
(EDUCampo/UFG/RC), habilitation in
natural sciences, about importance of
Science Education on basic education,
specially Countryside Education, as well as
the need of a unusual initial formation in
order to guarantee the countryside students
become a critic subject environmentally
responsible. Those undergraduate students,
as future elementary school science
teachers (6º to 9º period) and also biology,
physics, and chemistry into high school (1º
to 3º period), were led to
think/problematizing about the role of this
area on the critic and reflective formation
of its future students.
The graduation on Countryside
Education and Science Education
Graduating on Countryside
Education is intended to prepare educators
to a “… integral professional practice
offering professional conditions on
management of teaching learning
processes that happens into school and
around it” (Lopes & Bizerril, 2014). In this
Melo, R. J., Adams, F. W., & Nunes, S. M. T. (2020). Conceptions of the importance of Science Education in basic education by
pre-service teachers of a Rural Education Degree course…
Tocantinópolis/Brasil
v. 5
e7240
10.20873/uft.rbec.e7240
2020
ISSN: 2525-4863
7
context, the graduation course of
Countryside Education has an important
social role, because it arises from decades
of struggle fought by social movements:
A struggle that goes beyond agrarian
reform, because to have a land reform, it is
important to have a reform in education
and in the countryside, a portion that has
always been excluded from quality public
education: people have the right to be
educated where it lives; people has the
right to access an education thought from
their place and with their participation,
linked to their culture and their human and
social needs (Caldart, 2002, p. 18).
The training by knowledge area,
interdisciplinary and alternating between
community times and school/university
times (pedagogy of alternation) comprise
the set of elements that defines the
guidelines to graduation in Countryside
Education, that refers to the needs of
establish reflections and dialogues, about
limits and possibilities, of consolidation of
these guidelines onto the scope of teacher
formation and actions in countryside
schools (Britto & Silva, 2015).
In university time (UT) students
attend classes and other academic activities
on university scope and on community
time (CT) they develop works on
communities that starts from its diagnosis,
approximation between schools,
classrooms, until communitarian projects
intended to reach the integration between
school and community (Brick et al., 2014).
In this sense, on 2014, after being
selected on PROCAMPO (Support
programme to Graduation on Countryside
Education), the special academic unit of
education of Federal University of
Goiás/Catalão (UFG/RC) starts the
elaboration of the graduation course on
Countryside Education of the institution.
The course’s main objective is to
promote Teacher’s Formation to act on
middle and high school, giving to graduate
student a licentiate degree on Countryside
Education – licensed in natural sciences
(Federal University of Goiás, 2017). Also,
the course is focused on qualify educators
to interdisciplinary teaching, on natural
sciences, into countryside schools and
management of primary school processes
into same institutions.
Thus, Countryside Education is
configured in the Brazilian education
scenario as a process in constant mutation,
in order to consider particularities, present
in countryside and consequently permeate
the process of teaching and learning of the
countryside subjects. In Countryside
Education, the Science Education has its
specificities when compared to other
teaching modalities. According to Lima
(2010, p. 45), it is important that “... future
Melo, R. J., Adams, F. W., & Nunes, S. M. T. (2020). Conceptions of the importance of Science Education in basic education by
pre-service teachers of a Rural Education Degree course…
Tocantinópolis/Brasil
v. 5
e7240
10.20873/uft.rbec.e7240
2020
ISSN: 2525-4863
8
countryside educators learn to teach life
and natural sciences based on contexts of
experience and meaning of students, on
communities in which they live and teach”.
The culture and relationships these subjects
establish with the land, requires that these
meanings and signifiers be incorporated
into the class planning (Enisweler,
Kliemann & Strieder, 2015). This will
occur through initial teacher formation that
allows them to deal with these specificities
present in their training process.
Methodology
This work presents a qualitative
research that has in this core questions
about Science Education on initial training
of the graduation on Countryside
Education of the Federal University of
Goiás/Catalão Regional
(EDUCampo/UFG/RC). This work is a
part of a graduation work and was
executed at UFG/RC. Participants were
students from the first class of the course
on its last semester.
Regarding the qualitative nature of
this work, Bogdan and Biklen (1994)
affirm that a qualitative research aims to
analyze the phenomena in all their
complexity and in their natural context,
concentrating the comprehension from the
point of view of the investigated subjects.
Martins (2004) also states that qualitative
research is important because it allows to
collect evidence about the topic addressed
in a creative and intuitive way, once there
is a proximity between researcher and
researched, allowing the understanding of
beliefs, traditions, in a maximum
intertwining with the object under study.
The instrument used to obtain our
data was a questionnaire. It is noteworthy
that this tool was applied to the first
undergraduate students of the Degree
Course in Rural Education
(EDUCampo/UFG / RC), who at the time
of the research were in the process of
graduating, aiming to investigate how
Science teaching is been conducted in the
early stages of the course. The
questionnaire had both open and closed
questions. We opted to use this
methodology because we believe that it
would provide freedom to the subjects to
express their opinions about matter in
question at the right time for each one,
once all the participants were employed
during the day and, at night they dedicated
themselves to the classes, which would
make more difficult to use interviews,
which would require common schedules
between researcher and subjects.
For Gil (1999, p. 128),
questionnaires are investigation
instruments that, through a high number of
written questions, aims to “the knowledge
Melo, R. J., Adams, F. W., & Nunes, S. M. T. (2020). Conceptions of the importance of Science Education in basic education by
pre-service teachers of a Rural Education Degree course…
Tocantinópolis/Brasil
v. 5
e7240
10.20873/uft.rbec.e7240
2020
ISSN: 2525-4863
9
of opinions, beliefs, feelings, interests,
expectations, experienced situations, etc.".
Some advantages of using a questionnaire
to collect data includes: a) It implies less
expenditure on personnel, once it does not
require researchers training; b) Ensures
anonymity of responses; c) It allows
people to answer it at a convenient
moment; and d) It does not expose
researchers to the influence of the
interviewee's opinions (Gil, 1999).
Nine students among the 10 (ten),
who are graduating (students in the last
semester of the Course), of the
EDUCampo/UFG/RC have answered the
questionnaire. The majority (90%) were
female and only one (10%) male, aged
between 32 and 57 years old. To guarantee
the anonymity of the participants,
identification codes were created, the letter
L followed by numbers ("1", "2", etc.) was
adopted to identify the subjects. In order to
determine the sequence, it was decided to
use the participant names on alphabetical
order, thus assigning the codes L1 to L9 to
the undergraduates.
The data obtained from the
questionnaires were analyzed using
Discursive Textual Analysis technique.
Discursive Textual Analysis is a data
analysis technique that has characteristics
of two important techniques of qualitative
research analysis, the content analysis and
discourse analysis (Moraes & Galliazzi,
2006). A discursive textual analysis is
described as a process that starts with
unitarization, a stage in which the texts are
separated into units of meaning and, then,
the articulation of similar meanings used in
a process called categorization. Onto
categorization, similar units of meaning are
gathered, and several levels of analysis
categories can be generated. This whole
process generates analytical meta-texts that
will compose interpretative texts (Moraes
& Galiazzi, 2006), reaching the last stage
of the analysis, called communication.
After finishing the questionnaires´s
tabulation, a reading was carried out
allowing to observe which subjects
appeared most frequently in the speech of
the undergraduates, and, thus, it was
possible to gather the units of meanings
(excerpts) most close to meaning, then
categories were established. This step of
Textual Discursive Analysis is called
categorization.
The determined categories constitute
the organizational elements of the text to
be written. Coming from them, the
descriptions and interpretations of the
understandings that emerged during the
analysis will be produced. There are
different ways of producing the categories;
in the deductive method, categories are
determined before unitarization; in the
Melo, R. J., Adams, F. W., & Nunes, S. M. T. (2020). Conceptions of the importance of Science Education in basic education by
pre-service teachers of a Rural Education Degree course…
Tocantinópolis/Brasil
v. 5
e7240
10.20873/uft.rbec.e7240
2020
ISSN: 2525-4863
10
inductive method, they are produced from
the units of meanings obtained in the
unitarization stage (Moraes; Galiazzi,
2006). It is worth highlighting that, the
inductive method was used, because
however we started with initial theoretical
assumptions, categories were organized by
comparing the units of meaning that
emerged during the disassembly of the
texts. In this process, one of the categories
created was: “Conceptions of the
importance of Science Education in Basic
Education by undergraduates of a
Countryside Education Graduation
course”, subject of the present work.
Results and discussion
This work presents and discusses
results for the conception of the
importance of Science Teaching by
undergraduates of the first class of
Countryside Education Graduation Course
at Federal University of Goiás/Catalão
(EDUCampo/UFG/RC). For most research
subjects (95%), when the graduation
course on Countryside Education was
chosen, they initially did not seek
graduation with a focus on the Teaching of
Natural Sciences (Biological Sciences,
Physics and Chemistry), they had only the
desire (dream) to attend a university. But,
during the course, it is assessed that they
were able to realize that this area is of great
importance for the integral training of
subjects and that, based on the knowledge
of natural sciences, they could better
understand the world around them and
become more participative in society,
taking this knowledge to their future
students in a way they are also trained on a
critical perspective for an active
performance in society.
For Krasilchik and Marandino (2004,
p. 43), “the integration of Science
Education elements with other elements
from its curriculum, besides leading the
analysis of their social implications, gives
meaning to the concepts presented, to the
values and the necessary skills for rigorous
and productive work”. It is necessary to
recognize that through the Science
Education it is possible to problematize
actual themes, leading the student to relate
scientific knowledge with his/her daily life,
especially through interdisciplinarity. In
this perspective:
... Science Education should
contribute to reading and writing
proficiency; allow the learning of the
basic concepts of natural sciences
and its application in daily life; to
understand the relationship between
science and Society, also
mechanisms of production and
appropriation of scientific and
technological knowledge; guarantee
the construction and systematization
of knowledge and also regional and
local cultures. (Fracalanza, Amaral &
Gouveia, 1986, p. 26-27).
Melo, R. J., Adams, F. W., & Nunes, S. M. T. (2020). Conceptions of the importance of Science Education in basic education by
pre-service teachers of a Rural Education Degree course…
Tocantinópolis/Brasil
v. 5
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2020
ISSN: 2525-4863
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The teaching and learning process of
Science Education must propose and
instruct the student to have a positive
attitude towards changes in a reflexive
way; get him to think, feel and act for life,
in order to discover his world, as well as
know it to find out how to value
environment around, enabling him to make
right decisions to his fellows and nature. In
this sense, Cachapuz, Praia and Jorge
(2004) state that the best way to predict the
future is to help creating it, which can
happen through actions that perceive
Science and Science Education as a
dynamic system, built by and for
humanity. Therefore, respondents were
asked whether they considered the Science
Education important in Basic Education; in
response, everyone said that this is very
important. According to them, the Science
Education are directly linked to the lives of
students, and can assist in the construction
of critical meanings about this world:
Excerpt 1- "Yes, it's important.
Science is present all around us, and
this scientific knowledge allied to
student's daily life makes them to
become more critic, capable of
understanding the world around
them" (L3).
Excerpt 2- "Yes, it is very important
for young people to have a critic
education; learning science is the
way act as a good human and
professional being" (L6).
Excerpt 3- "Yes, because as Chassot
says, science teaching must be a basis
to the student in order to able him to
read the world, so it is important that
from early years he starts to access
this basis to build up these
knowledge" (L8).
Through the words of the
undergraduates, one can realize that it is
necessary to offer conditions for students
to develop more and more knowledge
about nature and respect to it, becoming
able to understand its phenomena and use
natural resources with responsibility and
wisdom. The development of this
knowledge and these attitudes is
undoubtedly related to the contents and
procedures of the Science Education field;
the teacher is responsible for contributing
and creating real conditions for students to
develop skills to solve problems and
correlate this knowledge to his daily
routine.
Thus, undergraduates recognize the
need for natural science’s knowledge, in
order to interpret the world and daily life in
a realistic and active way. However,
undergraduates have shown a certain
concern about the scientific knowledge,
built up by them through the course. Once
it is a course degree that graduates for
interdisciplinary teaching in Biological
Sciences, Physics and Chemistry, they
demonstrated a feeling that it only
addresses these fields in a shallow way. In
this context, Brick et al. (2014) emphasize
that Countryside Education cannot only be
understood as a simple knowledge context
Melo, R. J., Adams, F. W., & Nunes, S. M. T. (2020). Conceptions of the importance of Science Education in basic education by
pre-service teachers of a Rural Education Degree course…
Tocantinópolis/Brasil
v. 5
e7240
10.20873/uft.rbec.e7240
2020
ISSN: 2525-4863
12
of application, already produced over four
decades in Science Education
investigation, but it must be understood as
an Education project that, even being under
construction, has reasons, legitimated by
social movements that demanded them and
they were legally instituted by normative
resolutions.
Krasilchik (1987) points out that one
of the factors that negatively influences
Science Education is the superficial
formation of the teachers, thus, the
complaints that only referred to the
superficiality in methodological areas,
were extended covering the professional
formation regarding the knowledge of the
general subjects themselves, leading them
to a insecurity for the class, to low quality
of his classes and to the close dependence
of textbooks (Krasilchik, l987, p. 48).
Therefore, the complaint of
EDUCampo/UFG/RC undergraduates is
not exclusive to them as shown on other
studies. Tardif (2002) states that the
relationship of the teachers with the
knowledge cannot be reduced to a
transmission of constituted knowledge. His
practice is the sum of different
knowledges, on which the teaching staff
maintains different relationships. Teachers'
knowledge can be defined as a plural
knowledge, constituted by the
amalgamation, more or less coherent, of
disciplinary, curricular and experiential
knowledge.
As teaching in this course must be
based on interdisciplinarity "can be
considered as a possibility of breaking the
rigidity of the compartments in which the
disciplines of school curricula are
isolated". (Pires, 1998, p. 177). Regarding
teacher formation, it is recommended the
need of a non-linear and hierarchical
structure, in which teachers' knowledge is
not reduced to disciplinary knowledge
(Fazenda, 2008). The author, therefore,
points the need to break with rigid
disciplinary barriers, indicating the
connection of different, local and global
knowledges, which we understand as a sine
qua non condition for the proposal of
countryside Education in the Teachers
formation by area of knowledge.
Regarding the contents of Nature
Sciences, the students commented that:
Excerpt 4 - "I think is a short time, a
lot of content and short time to go
deeper. I just needed more time
because I don't feel totally prepared"
(L2).
Excerpt 5 - "The contents of
Chemistry and Physics, in my
opinion, needed more classes to
achieve the necessary knowledge to
act in the area" (L9).
Excerpt 6 - "Four years is short
period for the qualification in these
three areas [...] so that you have
critical knowledge in all of them"
(L5).
Melo, R. J., Adams, F. W., & Nunes, S. M. T. (2020). Conceptions of the importance of Science Education in basic education by
pre-service teachers of a Rural Education Degree course…
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2020
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Thus, students realize the importance
of acting critically in their future teaching
practice. However, they have identified
gaps in their formation, stating that they
consider four years a short period for them
to build scientific knowledge critically.
Hence, on other questions, the students
were asked about the experience of
contextualized classes or other activities
that have provided differentiated
methodological experiences. The future
teachers, without exception, cited that they
experienced contextualization during their
initial teacher formation. They also
mentioned that the contents of Biological
Sciences, Physics and Chemistry were
studied in a contextualized way, based on
their realities. They also cited the
opportunity to experience this
contextualization in the disciplines of
"Practices of Science Laboratories" 1 and
2, and in the disciplines of Internship (an
opportunity to experience the development
and implementation of contextualized
classes). Therefore, they affirmed that they
experienced the contextualization in the
disciplines of Sciences attended during the
initial formation and put into practice in
disciplines both of Internship and Teaching
Instrumentation (practical subjects).
Despite the insecurity about their
formation, it has provided students with the
opportunity to experience the
contextualization of knowledge,
transcending the traditionalist vision of
Higher Education of graduation courses in
Nature Sciences based on the transmission
of a closed content. Silva (2007) states that
performing activities of this nature
(contextualized classes) is not easy, mainly
due to the fact that frequently,
undergraduates experience a formation,
both on basic and higher education,
focused almost exclusively on the final
product of science, described by
mathematical expressions.
In this perspective, Wartha and
Alário (2005) point out that the process of
contextualization aims to incorporate
concrete and diversified experiences in the
learning process. This should include, in a
critical way, the meaning-of students' daily
lives. The authors also state that "...
contextualizing is creating meanings and
these are not neutral, they incorporate
values because they explicit the daily life,
they promote the comprehension of
problems from social and cultural
environment, or ease to experience the
process of discovery". (Wartha & Alário,
2005, p. 43). In this way, it is believed that
the experience of contextualized classes
can offer subsidies for future teachers to
develop them during their future
professional career as well.
Undergraduates also cited that the
Melo, R. J., Adams, F. W., & Nunes, S. M. T. (2020). Conceptions of the importance of Science Education in basic education by
pre-service teachers of a Rural Education Degree course…
Tocantinópolis/Brasil
v. 5
e7240
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2020
ISSN: 2525-4863
14
activities of Community Time also
provided the opportunity to contextualize
and experience scientific knowledge:
Excerpt 7 - "... because it is a way to
know the experiences, the daily life,
culture and reality that we will face
as a teacher. Science teaching is also
that, relating scientific knowledge to
our reality" (L 4).
Excerpt 8 - "... studying theory in the
classroom and then we have the
opportunity to go into the field and
make the interaction of scientific
knowledge with everyday
knowledge" (L7).
Once again, despite the normal
insecurity, typical of recent graduates, they
claim that they had the opportunity to
experience the contextualization of
scientific content in their initial Teacher
Formation. Thus, the results obtained in
this work point out that giving graduates
the opportunity to join contextualized
classes and promote experiences in the
development of such strategies, contributes
to a solid initial formation, because these
future teachers take ownership of the need
to promote differentiated learning, to
ensure that Science Education creates
critical citizens.
Silva (2007) states it is clear that the
undergraduate gradually appropriates the
educational discourse, which is presented
to, in the pedagogical disciplines of the
course. However, the learning focused on
the use of this knowledge and these skills,
comes up against difficulties of different
natures. The most significant ones seem to
be linked to the fact that the undergraduate
still has many difficulties with the
conceptual domain of Physics. Moreover,
the perspective of contextualizing the
specific contents, is not a common practice
on other disciplines of the course. In this
case, it is possible to say that, at this stage
of formation, few undergraduates venture
to carry out educational activities that
deviate from what they often have contact,
within the various disciplines of the
undergraduate course (Macedo & Silva,
2014, p. 69).
On words from the interviewed
students, they claimed to have experienced
contextualized teaching, which can be
considered an exception and a prospective
of contextualized initial teacher formation.
Some examples are the replies of the
students who have shown that in their
formation they had the opportunity to
experience the relationship between
Science, Technology, Society and
Environment (CTS). According to Santos
and Mortimer (2002), all curricula with a
Science, Technology and Society approach
have as main objective to prepare students
for the exercise of citizenship and are
characterized by an approach to scientific
content in its social context. Thus, when
maintaining contact with a CTS approach,
they had the opportunity to become
Melo, R. J., Adams, F. W., & Nunes, S. M. T. (2020). Conceptions of the importance of Science Education in basic education by
pre-service teachers of a Rural Education Degree course…
Tocantinópolis/Brasil
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2020
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critical, conscious and elucidated citizens
as to the scientific and technological
problems of the society:
Excerpt 9 - "Yes, because all the
disciplines have contributed to make
me a critical citizen and aware of my
rights and duties as a human being in
this world" (L1).
Excerpt 10 - "disciplines attended in
the Course give us a very good vision
about the social, scientific and
technological world. Some things I
thought in a way, today I think on
another way in function of the
knowledge acquired in the course. I
believe that this is the role of an
University, to train a critical citizen,
with discernment of ideas and ready
to act into classroom" (L6).
Excerpt 11 - "Before entering the
University I was an alienated person,
I always agreed with what I heard.
Today I can say that I am a critical
person, who always to question
before arguing" (L8).
These lines demonstrate that the
scientific and pedagogical knowledge built
up, has contributed to critical Teacher
Formation. Therefore, a future critical
action is also expected. Furthermore, it is
believed that the Science Education in
Countryside Education will make sense if
it is focused on the specificities of these
communities have, i.e., from the daily lives
of those involved. Britto (2011) calls
attention to the need to consider the
challenges of thinking about a Science
Education that must be at the service of the
Countryside Education project. Carvalho
and Gil-Pérez (2011) suggest that Science
can be understood as a way of looking
critically to complex problems of social
importance in each specific context - "and,
from this perspective, needs to mobilize
available knowledge from specific areas in
articulation with knowledge from other
areas, on an interdisciplinary sense".
(Brick et al., 2014, p. 44).
Pinheiro, Silveira and Bazzo (2007)
consider that the Science, Technology and
Society (CTS) approach, profoundly
modifies classroom work, reinforcing
topics like the ways of knowledge
production of Science and Technology,
within social and political responsibility. In
that sense, it is believed that the Science
Education will be important to countryside
students if an approach of teaching based
on CTS methodology, which take into
account the context in which the students
are inserted, is inserted. Corroborating with
this, López and Cerezo (1996) affirm that
the Curricular Proposal of CTS would
correspond to an integration between
scientific, technological and social
education, in which the contents are
studied together with the discussion of its
historical, ethical, political and
socioeconomic aspects.
Finally, Adams et al. (2016) believe
that with CTS approach, students can
develop knowledge in the cognitive, social
and environmental areas, because starting
Melo, R. J., Adams, F. W., & Nunes, S. M. T. (2020). Conceptions of the importance of Science Education in basic education by
pre-service teachers of a Rural Education Degree course…
Tocantinópolis/Brasil
v. 5
e7240
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2020
ISSN: 2525-4863
16
from this methodology, during a class,
students have direct contact with people,
learn to work in teams, communicate and
accept ideas from others, in short, they
experience elements to train themselves as
critical citizens, and can also develop
changes in attitudes towards the problems
studied.
In the questionnaires, besides
mentioning that they had the discipline of
Science, Technology and Society focused
on the discussion of this teaching approach
in their training, the students also
mentioned that they were able to elaborate
and apply a didactic sequence, with a CTS
focus, in their Internships. Therefore, once
again the opportunity to experience a
differentiated teaching formation is
emphasized. Despite mentioning their
difficulties in the elaboration of this
sequence, they had the opportunity to
overcome such challenges:
Excerpt 12 - "Aligning scientific
knowledge with social aspects is not
an easy task for those who do not
have teaching practice. Now that we
are teaching, it is being easier" (L3).
This speech, therefore, demonstrates
the overcoming of difficulties. Macedo e
Silva (2014), in his work "The Processes of
Contextualization and the Initial Training
of Physics Teachers", which aimed to
analyze the understandings that Physics
teachers in initial training have about the
processes of contextualization, concluded
that it is essential that educational
processes of contextualized classes can be
addressed in a more articulated way during
the graduation course. In addition, it is
essential that students experience,
especially in the earlier stages, concrete
examples of these classes, both as students
and as teachers in internship. This shows
us that the initial formation experienced by
the students of the Graduation Course in
Countryside Education of UFG/RC is
singular, because it ensures they have most
diverse experiences, both experienced in
scientific disciplines (Biological Sciences,
Physics and Chemistry), as in teaching
practices (Internships and Instructions for
Teaching), which allowed them to acquire
a differentiated background, for
elaboration of classes that ensure a
contextualized process of teaching and
learning and also quality to their future
professional performance.
Final considerations
The results of this paper show that
the undergraduates from the Degree in
Countryside Education of the Federal
University of Goiás/Catalão Regional,
proficiency in Nature Sciences, understand
the importance of Science Education to the
critical formation of their future students. It
is clear that the respondents understand
Melo, R. J., Adams, F. W., & Nunes, S. M. T. (2020). Conceptions of the importance of Science Education in basic education by
pre-service teachers of a Rural Education Degree course…
Tocantinópolis/Brasil
v. 5
e7240
10.20873/uft.rbec.e7240
2020
ISSN: 2525-4863
17
that Science Education has enormous
importance for the development of the
student, especially as subject, once with
scientific knowledge developed, they may
be able to act in their reality with critical
and active sense. It is thus believed that, in
their future pedagogical practice, they can
make use of a contextualized teaching,
focused on the countryside student’s
reality.
In this sense, it is necessary that the
school find a different path from the one
already outlined and introduces in the
classroom truly interactive actions in order
that education take place in a meaningful
way in individual's life of student, in a
form he can better understand the society
in which he lives and his relationship with
the world, playing his role in the creation
of reality and in its own history. So, it is
necessary to create strategies to stimulate
the student's attention, planning in the
curricula the use of technological means,
placing them at the service of a creative
and more attractive training, in an attempt
to be along with the technological
evolution.
In regard of the insecurity
demonstrated by future teachers, it is
believed that this is common among
undergraduate students, or recently
graduated. It is common that, in these
circumstances, they present a level of
insecurity. But in case of the professional
teacher, it is considered that is inside
classroom practice, that he will, truly learn
to be a teacher, coming from the daily
experiences and the construction of his
identity, started in his initial formation, but
which continues in his professional
performance.
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Note:
Work initially published in a summarized form in
the Proceedings II National Congress on Science
Teaching and Teacher Training - CECIFOP, 2019.
Article Information
Received on July 24th, 2019
Accepted on January 20th, 2020
Published on May, 29th, 2020
Author Contributions: The author Renata José de Melo
was responsible for the elaboration, analysis and
interpretation of the data; writing of the manuscript; the
author Fernanda Welter Adams was responsible for the
analysis and interpretation of the data; writing and
reviewing the manuscript content, and Simara Maria
Tavares Nunes was responsible for guiding the
preparation and interpretation of data, as well as
responsible for reviewing the manuscript content; the
authors approved the final published version.
Conflict of Interest: None reported.
Orcid
Renata José de Melo
http://orcid.org/0000-0002-9613-039X
Fernanda Welter Adams
http://orcid.org/0000-0003-4935-5198
Simara Maria Tavares Nunes
http://orcid.org/0000-0002-7196-4398
How to cite this article
APA
Melo, R. J., Adams, F. W., & Nunes, S. M. T. (2020).
Conceptions of the importance of Science Education in
basic education by pre-service teachers of a Rural
Education Degree course. Rev. Bras. Educ. Camp., 5,
e7240. http://dx.doi.org/10.20873/uft.rbec.e7240
ABNT
MELO, R. J. ADAMS, F. W.; NUNES, S. M. T.
Conceptions of the importance of Science Education in
basic education by pre-service teachers of a Rural
Education Degree course. Rev. Bras. Educ. Camp.,
Tocantinópolis, v. 5, e7240, 2020.
http://dx.doi.org/10.20873/uft.rbec.e7240