Programa de Pós-Graduação em Educação Científica e Tecnológica

1. Teacher Education

This line of research aims to investigate teacher education focused on scientific and technological education, from the perspective of their practices, theories, and epistemologies in different teaching and learning environments and educational. It covers investigations of both initial and continuing teacher education. The focus of interest is:

– Research on conceptions, ideas, imaginary of teachers in initial or continuing education; – Studies on the curricula of degrees in teaching linked to the area, reflections on the supervised training, and teaching practice as a locus of knowledge and not just to apply theories. – Studies on the teacher’s role in the production, application, and evaluation of teaching proposals in participatory, ethnographic, and action research to rethink the pedagogical practice. 

Professors working in this line of research:

2. Science Teaching and Learning

This line brings together investigations that relate to the teaching and learning processes in the various areas of Science (Biology, Chemistry, and Physics) and Mathematics. The focus of research is:

– Theoretical conceptions of learning and human development, aiming at the construction of pedagogical models; – The cognitive, affective and motivational factors, among others, involved in the teaching and learning processes of these areas; – Teaching and learning strategies, such as building islands of rationality, meaningful learning, problem-solving and modeling among others; – Semiotic representation records in mathematical learning; – The previous conceptions students in different educational levels have of science and mathematics; – The proposition of innovative materials for the teaching and dissemination of science and mathematics to be used in different -formal, informal and distance learning- teaching environments.

Professors working in this line of research:

3. Social Implications of Science and Technology in Education

This line of research focuses on investigating, at the three levels of education, aspects of scientific and technological education related to the perceptions of the relationships between science, technology, and society, and environment, arising from the science, technology and society and environmental studies, in their various aspects and theoretical and methodological Latin American, European and North American guidance. The studies included in this line are based on contributions from the socio-technical analysis and the philosophy and history of science and technology, among others. Aspects of the dissemination and popularization of scientific and technological knowledge are also approached as to their connections with the teaching of sciences and mathematics, both in formal and informal education. The privileged focuses of this line are:

– Conceptions of the relationships between science, technology, society (CTS in Portuguese) and the environment and their influences on scientific, technological and environmental education; – Curriculum aspects of science and technology education with a CTS perspective; – Investigations on CTS teaching in different areas and levels of training and their curriculum implications; – Investigation of the relationships between Paulo Freire’s pedagogy and CTS relationships in science and technology education; – Investigations in science and technology literary and interdisciplinary islands of rationality; – Investigations on the characteristics of the processes of dissemination and the popularization of science, and their relationship with science education; – Investigations on the discourses of science and technology.

Professors working in this line of research:

4. Epistemology and the History of Science and Mathematics

Based on the production coming from the history of science and mathematics, and from a deepening of the epistemological understandings that emerged after the empiricism-logic, this line of investigation considers socio-historical-cultural aspects involved in the emergence, development, and dissemination of theories, models and concepts of biology, physics, mathematics, and chemistry. Epistemological categories, as well as texts produced by science historians, support historical-epistemological analyses of episodes in the history of sciences, aiming at exploring their potential contributions to address research problems in science and mathematics education at the three levels of education. The main focuses of this line are:

– Research on the role of the history of science and epistemology in the teacher training, in the development of teaching-learning strategies and the teaching of the modeling of physical systems; – Production, application, and evaluation of didactic texts with a historical-epistemological approach; – Research on students’ and teachers’ conceptions of the nature of scientific knowledge and specific scientific concepts.

Professors working in this line of research:

5. Media and Science Education

The research line Media and Science Teaching highlights the limits and possibilities for socializing the knowledge of science education and technology, considering the conflicts and challenges that information and communication technologies have caused at all levels of education. It studies the context of education linked to technological mediations, especially the virtual learning environments that host hypermedia: text, image, movement, sound, simulations with variations in scale. The main focuses of this line are:

– Investigations on theoretical conceptions of the teaching-learning process, aiming to build pedagogical models based on the theoretical-practical reflection of the teaching of natural sciences and mathematics; – Investigations on teaching-learning strategies in the areas of natural sciences and mathematics, with a view to the use of information and communication technologies; – Investigations that allow the innovative production of educational materials for the teaching-learning process and the dissemination of natural sciences and mathematics, in formal and informal education, and distance learning environments.

Professors working in this line of research:

6. Language and Teaching

These studies emphasize the importance of language functioning not only as a simple communication tool, aiming to establish less naive and naturalized relations about the mainstream discourses of science and technology. Language is seen as “language games” that are established by rules, conventions in culture and history, producers of meanings of technoscience and education, centered on cultural and socio-historical aspects. Language is investigated as a form of representation in art, scientific and technological education, mathematics, history, architecture. The main focuses of this line are:

– Investigations on reading and writing, also aiming to rethink the training of readers in science and technology teaching; – Analysis of language functioning (in didactic texts and others, in discursive interactions in classrooms, in the media) aiming to propose strategies for science and technology education; – Investigations on the imaginary of students and teachers about language and its functioning in science classes; – Studies of problematizations as a means of the emergence of knowledge; – Discourse analysis and science, technology and society (CTS in Portuguese) relations in science and technology education.

Professors working in this line of research: