O processo de ensino-aprendizagem sobre vírus e vacinas à luz da Teoria da Objetivação: uma nova perspectiva para o ensino de ciências

Abstract

Due to the rise of scientific denialism, exemplified by movements such as the anti-vaccine movement and its implications for public health, it becomes essential to promote a science education that fosters debate on relevant topics, such as viruses and vaccines, and encourages critical thinking. In this context, the Theory of Objectification (TO), which emerged in mathematics education in the 1990s, presents itself as an alternative model to approaches centered exclusively on either the teacher or the student, while considering teaching and learning as a single, inseparable process. This theory understands learning as an encounter with historically constituted ways of thinking and acting upon the world, structured through a collective, dialogical, and critical perspective, beyond that, it acknowledges the dialectical intertwining of individuals and their historical-cultural contexts. According to TO, learning involves both objectification processes – the encounter with knowledge – and subjectification processes, related to the co-production of critical and ethical individuals. Based on this perspective, the research investigated the teaching-learning process concerning viruses and vaccines in a middle school classroom, seeking to answer the following question: What are the possibilities and challenges of implementing a teaching-learning process on viruses and vaccines based on the Theory of Objectification (TO)? To this end, the general objective was defined as analyzing the teaching-learning process on viruses and vaccines for middle school students through the lens of TO. This qualitative study is grounded in TO as its theoretical-methodological framework and involved the implementation of three Teaching and Learning Activities (TLAs), developed throughout 2023 academic year, during science classes with a 7th grade class from the Rede Municipal de Ensino de Campo Grande/MS. The TLAs represent the previous planned pedagogical intentionality and materializes in the classroom through the collaborative work between the teacher-researcher and the students. The classroom interaction analysis revealed initial challenges, such as students' resistance to working in groups according to collective needs and the need to overcome the teacher’s centralizing stance. However, during the process, collaborative and dialogical practices emerged, grounded in community ethics, in which students and the teacher began working together toward a common goal. This teaching-learning process enabled not only a gradual encounter with historical-cultural knowledge about viruses and vaccines but also critical reflections on fake news and connections with students' concrete experiences. Furthermore, changes were observed in students' initial conceptions of these topics, in their ways of thinking and acting collectively, and in classroom dynamics, transforming relationships among students and between students and the teacher. The results indicate the viability of TO as an alternative for science education committed to knowledge production and the co-production of ethical and critical individuals through a genuinely collective teaching-learning process in the classroom.

Keywords: Objectification processes. Subjectification processes. Joint labor. Communitarian ethics.