História e Filosofia da Ciência em aulas de evolução biológica no contexto da formação docente

Abstract

In this study I present a qualitative research which has as main objective to evaluate the potential of History and Philosophy of Science (HPS) for biological evolution classes in the teacher education context. To this end, a didactic sequence (DS) was elaborated and carried out in the discipline Biology and Evolution at the Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro – Faculdade de Formação de Professores. The DS was designed and programmed for three 200-minute classes according to the university’s timetable, however, despite the planning presented, the sequence of classes was built in such a way that they were not watertight and could be reproduced in a different reality of times from the one presented. After the DS, a focus group activity was carried out in order to obtain an assessment of the approach used in the classes and written reports were also requested from the undergraduate students for further evaluation through content analysis. The results discussed and presented, perceived through the speeches of the participants, point to the presence of some indicators that are in agreement with the potentials of History and Philosophy of Science for teaching, postulated by Michael R. Matthews. Some reports pointed to a potential to repair misunderstandings brought up from basic education on science and biological evolution due to the contextualizing character of HC, which enabled a more dynamic approach and less focused on the transposition of contents and concepts, without neglecting important contents on the Darwinian evolutionism in addition to enabling a more critical and conscious view of evolutionary science, taking them out of a positivist focus of science. However, gaps were also noticed and questions raised about DS itself, such as, for example, the need or not to debate more controversial topics such as the relationship religion x evolutionism and also Intelligent Design in evolution classes.