Um estudo sobre a evolução conceitual de respiração

Abstract

This study had as a start point the idea of that the concepts formation it evolves respecting the biological and social development of the individual and can be facilitated by school experience. The main aim of this research was to outline a profile of breath concept evolution among students of different levels of schooling by identifying their conceptual representations and difficulties in learning this concept. We kept a constant dialogue between vygotskian (socio-interacionism) and piagetian (genetic epistemology) theories, which explain the concept formation. It was also utilized the notion of conceptual profile developed by Mortimer where a single concept can be hold in different ways of thinking. Data was collected from questionnaires applied to a sample of Year 4 and Year 8 pupils; secondary school pupils; biology undergraduate students and post-graduate biochemistry students. It was obtained an evolutive profile of breath concept, allowing observing the coexistence between students' alternative concepts and scientific concepts experienced in science classes. The results make possible to observe the evolution from the aggregation of the students' alternative conceptions with the scientific one worked in the school. This profile can be useful to evaluate teachers' performance, students' learning as well as the curriculum of different modalities of education.