Analisando processos de avaliação formativa considerando a heterogeneidade de modos de pensar e formas de falar, dilemas e contradições em aulas de química

Abstract

This work aimed to analyze how processes of formative assessment are established in Chemistry classroom, considering the heterogeneity of modes of thinking and ways of speaking presented by the students and possible dilemmas and contradictions that may emerge in such processes. In this sense, we propose a system of activities that had as object the heat concept teaching and learning. The subjects participating in the research were the teacher/researcher and 22 students (year 10) involved in Chemistry classes, in a public High School located in a town of the countryside of Pernambuco, Brazil. In the methodology, we adopted the assumptions of the qualitative approach for the research, guided by the descriptive and interpretative method. As theoretical and methodological basis, to structure the system of activities, we use the assumptions that support the diagram of activities as a system (ENGESTROM, 2001), the theory of conceptual profiles (MORTIMER; EL-HANI, 2014) contributed to model the heterogeneity of thinking and language, more specifically in relation to the zones of the conceptual profile for heat (AMARAL; MORTIMER, 2001) and to plan and analyze the assessment processes integrated to teaching and learning, we based on the perspective of Bell and Cowie (2001) considering the characteristics of formative assessment in science teaching, as well as contributions from other authors who corroborate with the discussion about evaluation as a sociocultural activity. The results showed that the structuring of activities in integrated processes of teaching, assessment, and learning, which take into account the heterogeneity of thinking and language, favored the engagement of students in discursive interactions enabling them to express different ways of thinking and speaking about the concept of heat. The assessment processes focused on heterogeneity revealed that the utterances were presented by the students as hybrid constructions, aligned not only with scientific view, but also using social languages associated with different contexts. Thus, the mediating artifacts that explain the differences between ways of thinking and speaking about the concept studied invites students to articulate the scientific meanings for the concept with other ideas associated with diverse contexts promoting a situated learning on the scientific point of view, and this has impacts in ways of evaluating the students’ learning by the teacher.