Concepções de estudantes do ensino médio sobre angiospermas : uma abordagem a partir de modelos mentais

Abstract

The aim of this research was to analyze high school students' conceptions of angiosperms based on their mental models using Kelly's Cycle of Experience. Botany is considered an area of biology in which its contents are often approached in a superficial way, not delving into concepts and meanings that help with an understanding of plants, especially angiosperms and their importance for the environment, biodiversity and society, which contributes to botanical imperception throughout students' educational development. Therefore, botany teaching needs to be more diversified, in terms of including motivating strategies, differentiated technologies, games and didactic models. This research involved a qualitative-descriptive study, using questionnaires and didactic interventions in the stages established by the Kellyan Experience Cycle (CEK). Initially, the students established rather vague conceptions about angiosperms, portraying them as trees or relating them only to their medicinal character and beyond the presentation of simple mental models. As a result of the intervention process, it was possible to build a theoretical-methodological framework, whose field trip to the Recife-PE Botanical Garden and other actions allowed the students the opportunity for conceptual reframing in which they brought textual arguments closer to scientific knowledge, expressing ideas about angiosperms as a plant with flowers, fruit and seeds and with well-structured and complex mental models.