A dinâmica do contrato didático na elaboração e aplicação de uma intervenção didática sobre calorimetria baseada na resolução de situações-problema

Abstract

In this study, we sought to analyze the dynamics of the didactic contract in the elaboration and application of a didactic intervention centered on the problem-situations approach. The notion of the Didactic Contract was proposed by Guy Brousseau as a didactic relation governed by a set of implicit and explicit rules, which holds in its core a greater subjectivity, of how these clauses are negotiated and governed. Three essential elements make up the didactic system: teacher, student and knowledge, which in our case is the chemical knowledge Calorimetry. The didactic system is also composed by an environment that must be prepared by the teacher so that his students get to learn, that is, it depends on the adopted didactic strategy. Then, with each environment and / or new knowledge that enters the classroom, a new Teaching Contract is instituted. We adopted the problem-solving approach as a didactic strategy associated with the environment, with the intention of bringing everyday knowledge closer to the scientific knowledge elaborated in the classroom. In this strategy the student is presented with a task that can only be solved if he overcomes an obstacle and, by overcoming it, acquires the knowledge. In order to do this, the student must commit to his / her learning in such a way that he / she takes the proposed task as his / her own. This is the concept of didactic devolution defined by Brousseau, and it is what brings these two conceptual landmarks of our work closer together. As for the methodology used for the data collection, a mini-course of extension was proposed for chemistry teachers in exercise, but also had graduates that were acting on the second year of high school. The main purpose of the mini-course was to equip them for the elaboration and application of didactic interventions based on Problem-Situation. At the end of the mini-course, in pairs, the teachers elaborated a didactic intervention with the chemical content that would be working subsequently in the classroom. We selected a teacher to apply her intervention at her school. We followed the application of Problem-Situation elaborated by Professor Luiza, which dealt with the content of Calorimetry. During these two stages, we made videotapes and later transcription, in order to analyze the didactic contract in three different situations: the transition from the Problem-Situation of knowing to didactic strategy associated to the environment; distance from what was planned and executed, and, finally, the simultaneity of two contractual relations in which Professor Luiza was involved. The data revealed the occurrence of a textual knowledge during the extension course and that, when composing part of the environment, carries theoretical and methodological characteristics in terms of negotiation of contractual rules or differentiated posture of the teacher before its application, so that the emancipatory function or return of the students was awakened. The teacher had to make changes in what had been planned, revealing a certain insecurity in seeking the approval of the researcher with each change, due to the maintenance of the didactic agreement instituted in the mini course, which is paralleled by the didactic relationship that teacher Luiza later establishes with her students in the classroom.