KNOWLEDGE EXPERIENCE KNOWLEDGE AND ITS POTENTIALS FOR TRAINING SCIENCE / BIOLOGY TEACHER
Name: MARIANA DONATELI GATTI
Publication date: 17/09/2019
Advisor:
Name |
Role |
|---|---|
| JUNIA FREGUGLIA MACHADO GARCIA | Advisor * |
Examining board:
| Name |
Role |
|---|---|
| JUNIA FREGUGLIA MACHADO GARCIA | Advisor * |
| MARIANA POZZATTI | External Examiner * |
| MIRIAN DO AMARAL JONIS SILVA | External Examiner * |
| PATRICIA SILVEIRA DA SILVA TRAZZI | Internal Examiner * |
Summary: This research aimed to understand how school contexts influence the construction of
experiential knowledge of Science/Biology teachers. For this, we rely mainly on Tardif's ideas
about teaching knowledge and Wersth's studies on mediated action, considering that
experiential knowledge is built on the irreducible tension between the agents and the cultural
tools they employ. We chose to produce the data through narratives from a focus group in
which teachers discussed aspects related to school planning, classroom practice, and teacher
work evaluation. Data analysis was performed using mediated action as a unit. Thus, we focus
on the relationships established between the subjects and the mediation means they used to
perform their actions. The results reveal that school contexts interfere in the construction of
teaching experiential knowledge in several aspects. Institutional organization can influence
the moment of exchange of experiences between peers, which influences the planning of
interdisciplinary work and the possibilities for shared reflections. The resources present in
schools interfere in the development of teaching practice as they enable or limit teachers'
know-how. Another aspect that caught our attention was that, even with the many resources
available in some schools, usually in private institutions, the choice or not to use them in
practice may be linked to the opinions of other subjects who interact with teachers, such as
example, the students themselves and their families. In this context, we have seen that,
although mastering a certain cultural tool, it may or may not be appropriate by the teacher due
to these interpersonal relationships and the discourses of power and authority that certain
school agents exercise in the institutions. We note that external evaluations that fall on public
institutions also influence teaching practice, as they generate a field of tension between
management and teachers to ensure better results and, in turn, ensure a larger allocation of
funds for institution. In addition, the bureaucracy that focuses teachers on tasks and
curriculum content takes up a great deal of the time they have to plan and can stiffen
lesson/teaching plans and, consequently, classroom practice. Although we have identified
evidence of aspects that are more present in private schools, such as a greater presence of
material resources and the strong influence of students' families on school dynamics; and
aspects more present in public schools, such as the precariousness of material resources and
greater freedom of teachers to make curricular adaptations, it is not possible and nor was it
our intention to categorize these institutions, in view of the uniqueness of each context. Thus,
even being in unique contexts of professional practice, and at different times of the teaching
career, our results indicate that teachers share experiential knowledge. In this way, from this
research emerged Elements for a proposal for the formation of Science/Biology teachers that
consider the teaching experiential knowledge, which was constituted as the product of this
work. Thus, we conclude that the experiential knowledge, which is part of the teaching
knowledge, needs to be mobilized and further discussed in Science/Biology teacher education
programs, in view of the possibility of contributing both to the teaching and learning process
and to building a teachers professionalism.
