Aprendizagem significativa e mudança conceitual: utilização de um ambiente virtual para o ensino de circuitos elétricos na educação de jovens e adultos

Abstract

In this work we report an investigation aimed to develop, implement and evaluate a teaching sequence in physics classes working the fundamental concepts of electricity to the understanding of the concepts of simple electrical circuits in the Education of Young and Adults. This choice has been made for two reasons: the lack of material intended for adult education students who attend high school and because there are few studies in literature with focus on this type of education. The instructional material used in the teaching sequence was a Virtual Teaching Environment (VTE). The Virtual Teaching Environment includes issues related to simple electric circuits and the logic of its development was found on the principles of progressive differentiation and integrative reconciliation. To prepare the teaching sequence and tools for data collection, we rely on the Meaningful Learning Theory. Another reference point basing this work is the Conceptual Change Model of Posner and colleagues. In order to evaluate the impact of the proposed teaching sequence on the students’ learning of the subject we made use of qualitative and quantitative analysis. For this, two rooms in the second phase of Education of Young and Adult were divided into control and experimental groups. The experimental group had access to the content through the VTE, while the control group accessed the content in the format of the traditional classroom. Data collection occurred in three stages: semi-structured clinical interview, test dissertational with images representing the real objects of simple electric circuits and test circuits dissertation image represented by symbols used in physics. All tests were applied before and after instruction. These tests were designed to search for evidence to the promotion of meaningful learning and conceptual change in students’ beliefs. The results, both quantitative and qualitative, indicate a significant difference in the post-tests of the experimental group in relation to the post-tests the control group which points out to the positive effect of the proposed teaching sequence in to develop significative of learning by the experimental group.