MESTRADO PROFISSIONAL EM ENSINO DE CIÊNCIAS: CONTRIBUIÇÕES E LACUNAS PARA A FORMAÇÃO CONTINUADA DE PROFESSORES NA PERCEPÇÃO DOS(AS) ESTUDANTES DA UFMS

Abstract

Through this qualitative study (BOGDAN; BIKLEN, 2013), it was analyzed the importance of the continuing education process developed in the Graduate Program in Science Teaching at the Federal University of Mato Grosso do Sul (UFMS), in the perception of their students. The study was developed in four stages: bibliographic; documentary; field collection; analysis and systematization of the information collected. The participants of the research were students enrolled in the program, graduates and dropouts, who adhered to the research by signing an informed consent form and met the inclusion criteria (TCLE). In the bibliographic phase, the national scientific production on the importance of Professional Master's programs and their training processes and students' profile was surveyed and analyzed in the following indexing databases: Scientific Electronic Online Library (Scielo.br); Capes' Theses and Dissertations Database; Google Scholar and National Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations (BDTD), based on the following indexes: Professional Master's + Science Teaching + Continuing Education + Mato Grosso do Sul. In the field collection phase, an online questionnaire was applied, divided into four parts, the first containing the TCLE, the second about the student's profile, the third about the policies of continuing education and the last that addressed questions about information about the Master's Course in Science Teaching - PPEC/UFMS. The focus group (GF) with enrolled students and graduates followed the guidelines of Berenger, Elliot and Parreira (2012), gathering groups of up to 8 students, according to the adherence to the research. The GFs were conducted using Google Meet, with recording by consent of the participants. The transcription of the video was made with the help of the program Video Note, which was later passed on to the participants for validation of the information. The information collected was categorized and analyzed, observing the Bardin (2016). The results allowed us to identify, in the bibliographic phase, the scarcity of scientific production on the theme of the graduate students' profile in Science Teaching and its inexistence in Mato Grosso do Sul. The respondents of the online questionnaire are students of the PPEC and make up a total universe of 173 students, of whom 139 are former students, 18 are enrolled students and 16 are evaded students. In the field collection phase, the total adhesion to the online questionnaire was 43%. The amount of students in the PPEC professional master's course at UFMS who responded to the online questionnaire, according to gender, are mostly female. The average age of the enrolled students was 31.7 years, of the graduates was 40 years, and the average age of the dropouts was 38.5 years. Most students come from Biological Sciences undergraduate courses, followed by Pedagogy, Chemistry and Physics courses and 83.4% are teachers in basic public education.The results of the focus groups indicated that the participants sought the professional master's degree of the Graduate Program in Science Teaching at UFMS, preponderantly with the intention of professional improvement, recognized the importance of the course for the improvement of teaching practices, but expressed difficulties for permanence due to the absence of public policies for such, indicating that the permanence strategies are more linked to personal factors. Some pointed to relative support for the course from their bosses at work. We observed many manifestations about the difficulties faced by the enrolled students due to the internal changes in the course and the structural alterations brought by Covid 19 that directly affected the research processes. It was concluded that the Professional Master's Course in Science Teaching was an important educational policy for the continuing education of teachers during its period of operation, lacking specific policies for permanence.