Construção do conceito de gene através de dois jogos pedagógicos

Abstract

This study aimed to investigate the potential of educational games as helpers in the construction of the gene concept among high school students. The educational games, designed specifically for this study, were tested with students in third year of High School State School Presidente Vargas, city school of Dourados, Mato Grosso do Sul. Field research (application of the games) was held in the second half of 2008 with students of the three periods (morning, afternoon, evening). The results were analyzed by the epistemology of Gaston Bachelard, mainly making use of the notion of epistemological obstacle and his overcome it. The survey data show the complexity that permeates the proposed use of playful activity, while most students seems to have built the concept of the gene, others seem to have resolved the conflicts generated by the educational games. Whereas the teaching-learning the concept of gene is not easy, because the formation of abstract concept, we believe that educational games produced for this research shown to be potentially effective in the process of teaching and learning of genetics, especially for the construction of the concept of gene. We found that the two educational games - "Building the Concept of Gene through the Human Features"and "Building Concept of Gene" - provided moments where the students could psychoanalyze the gene concept, opening the way for the formation of a New Scientific Spirit, contemplating bachelardian epistemology.