Maré, mangue ou manguezal : um estudo de concepções de estudantes no Ensino Fundamental

Abstract

Mangroves constitute ecosystems of fundamental importance to the maintenance of fish stocks and have a close relationship with riverside communities, whether traditional or those involved in a process of unregulated occupation of urban areas. The mangroves that characterize the city of Recife in northeastern Brazil are subject to a high number of impacting factors. The aim of the present study was to investigate the principal conceptions regarding mangroves that emerge in an elementary school classroom and structure such concepts based on historical, epistemological and conceptual references in light of the notion of conceptual profile and Vygotsky’s theory regarding the formation of scientific concepts. For such, we designed a teaching sequence addressing the conceptual dimension of mangroves with different activities, including a story, presentation panels, drawings and dynamics distributed among four separate occasions. Data were collected in a 2nd grade class from a continuous dialog between the student culture and scientific culture. Videography was employed to record the activities and international ethnography allowed highlighting and organizing the discursive dynamics processed in the classroom. After selecting specific episodes and organizing the turns of speech, we found that there was a progressive enrichment in the inclusion of more scientific language, with more structured complexes for the mangrove concept and, at the end of the process, conceptions remained at the level of pseudoconcepts. The students began to see the environment in question (until then denominated “tide”) not as merely a part of the scenery, but as an object of study. We found points of approximation between children’s discourse and the epistemology of concepts regarding mangroves and ecosystems, which remained throughout the entire process, with different views linked to the mangroves, the most evident of which were related to pollution, garbage and specific fauna, thereby characterizing a naïve realism and a utilitarianism, both stemming from an empirical stance. We observed the pertinence of this study, with a conceptual focus in the early years of schooling, thereby inserting the study in the discussion of research carried out on this level, in which development is not necessarily a factor that impedes work with scientific concepts, as such concepts are progressively constructed by students during their scholastic experience and, due to the emergence of science education, it is necessary for such learning to begin in early childhood. The socio-cultural contextualization enabled piquing the curiosity of the children as well as the presence of culture in the science classroom.