The production about popular science in the science education area: theoretical background and main themes

Abstract

This paper presents a survey of the scientific publication about popular science in the science education area between the years 1997 and 2007, in annals of events, journals and repositories of theses and dissertations, identifying the main themes and the theoretical background used. Among the identified works, we highlight the ones that describe some aspects related to the reading texts of popular science by students and science teachers, noting that some of those works are specifically concerned with the usefulness of texts and the production of meaning by the readers in different teaching levels. However, we noticed that few studies have been thinking about the possibilities - in the initial preparation of future teachers - of aspects related to texts of popular science, as well as how would happen discursive interactions between future teachers and these texts. In this way, our conclusions suggest the necessity of new studies that may deepen theoretical subjects of the relation between popular science texts and the formal teaching of sciences in order to develop knowledge that could aid the understanding of the impacts and possibilities that popular science texts could provide in the integral scientific preparation of the involved subjects.