FLEXQUEST : Uma plataforma Web 2.0 para o desenvolvimento de atividades interdisciplinares visando a promoção de flexibilidade cognitiva

Abstract

The current social scene is immersed in an accelerated technological development that resulted in changes in daily life. This context requires a reformulation of school role to provide a critical and active upbringing, since teacher is no longer the main source of information. Information and Communication Technologies provide quick access to a large amount of information however quantity and open access to it do not ensure knowledge. From that perspective, there are some didactic strategies with the aim of guiding students in the effective use of technological tools such as the internet in the learning process, including WebQuest and FlexQuest, the second one is subject of investigation in this dissertation. FlexQuest is a strategy that aims to build broader and more flexible knowledge from contexts selected from internet; its format was designed in 2006 and developed by Portuguese-Brazilian researchers based on WebQuest model and some of Cognitive Flexibility Theory (CFT) principles. The production and use of FlexQuest has been studied in Brazil and Portugal, especially in high school (secondary) and higher education. The main objective of this research was to develop a proposal for restructuring the original FlexQuest format and make it theoretically and operationally more suitable to the principles of CFT and pedagogically directed to teaching and learning concepts associated with complex content of Natural Sciences. We specifically attempted to promote a reliable support for theoretical and methodological structuring elements and provide further identification with the ideas of cognitive flexibility, interdisciplinarity and some Web 2.0 aspects, in order to set a model capable of operationalizing the interdisciplinary approach to complex content of natural sciences by teachers. It is a qualitative research and the methodological approach consisted of an exploratory documental research to prepare the theoretical and methodological model; a meta-analysis of the original model of FlexQuest; and a content analysis about the usability test for the proposed tool. From the meta-analysis, we identified the main difficulties involved in the processes of creating and implementing the strategy. In order to reduce these difficulties and solve some problems in the initial model we defined the theoretical and methodological support for the new proposal, referred herein as second generation FlexQuest or FlexQuest 2.0 to promote updating and reinforcing its bases, the structural elements of this model are: i) cognitive flexibility; ii) interdisciplinarity; iii) Web 2.0 resources; and iv) inquiry processes. Based on this references we listed new critical attributes, restructuring the FlexQuest model to achieve the main objective of this research. We also proposed an online tool for teacher structur FlexQuest 2.0 in different areas of knowledge collaboratively. The usability of this platform was tested by a group of 21 teachers. It was perceived that FlexQuest platform now is functional and allows the construction of interdisciplinary projects, using Web 2.0 resources that enable inquiry processes and allow the development of cognitive flexibility.