Biological sciences teaching undergraduates’ environmental knowledge: a critical analysis

Authors

  • Silvana do Nascimento Silva Universidade Estadual do Sudoeste da Bahia-Uesb Departamento de Ciências Biológicas-DCB Laboratório de Ensino de Biologia-LEBio Rua José Moreira Sobrinho, s/n, Jequiezinho, 45.206-190, Jequié-BA, Brasil.
  • Graça Simões de Carvalho CIEC, Instituto de Educação Universidade do Minho Campus de Gualtar, 4710-057 Braga, Portugal.

Keywords:

environment, teacher training, science education, biology education.

Abstract

Nowadays, environmental issues have been addressed in a way that goes beyond the natural impacts, embracing socio-economic, political and cultural aspects. This paper makes a description of the types of environmental conceptions, giving special emphasis to the interactions that permeate it, and develops an empirical work by analyzing the conceptions about the environmental knowledge of students majoring in a teacher preparation course on biological sciences of a university in the State of Bahia, Brazil. In a qualitative research, data were collected by application of a questionnaire with open questions with answers in text and drawings. The results revealed a predominance of naturalistic conceptions, while socio-environmental conceptions of systemic or socio-metabolic characteristics were not found. These findings lead to the need for the integration of these critical approaches about the environmental issue in Sciences and Biology teachers’ training, emphasizing the interactions between work, nature and society. Finally, some suggestions also emerge for future research, among which to analyze the biological sciences university teachers’ environmental conceptions and an action-research with these investigated undergraduates concerning environmental critical approaches.

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Published

2016-06-08

How to Cite

Silva, S. do N., & de Carvalho, G. S. (2016). Biological sciences teaching undergraduates’ environmental knowledge: a critical analysis. Investigations in Science Education, 18(3), 737–752. Retrieved from https://ienci.if.ufrgs.br/index.php/ienci/article/view/123

Issue

Vol. 18 No. 3 (2013): December of 2013

Section

Artigos

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