Instructional materials in a STSE perspective: an analisys of units produced by secondary chemistry teachers in continuant formation

Abstract

Some research has shown that teachers present conceptions that indicate a vision of teaching focused on memorization and transmission of knowledge and do not consider an approach that regards to the STSE aspects. The aim of this study is to investigate the conceptions of contextualization present in instructional materials produced by a group of chemistry secondary teachers. The data were collected in a service course offered to teachers of São Paulo Metropolitan area. One of the strategies of the course was the production of instructional units based on STSE (Science, Technology, Society and Environment) orientations. The data analysis takes into account: presence of problematization, its development throughout the unit; the relations established between experiments or text and the proposed theme, and the nature of information presented in the texts (scientific, social, technological, environmental). Four context profiles were built to characterize the 13 units elaborated by the teachers. Four of the teachers’ units revealed simple contextualization view profiles, although six of them revealed more complex profiles, compatible with STSE orientation.