Concepções de alunos de escolas públicas de Cuité (PB), Nova Floresta (PB) e Jacanã (RN), sobre evolução biológica: problematização e perspectivas.

Abstract

Evolution is one of the most powerful ideas in science and the only unifying theory of Biological Sciences. Therefore, evolution should be a link between all subjects in the curriculum of Biology. Because it is a relevant topic, evolution needs many studies. Due to the scarcity of studies that approach the perception of the students of public schools in the municipalities of Cuité, Nova Floresta and Jaçanã, the objective of this work is to analyze the perceptions of students of state public schools of the mentioned municipalities on the evolution. This work sought to align with the qualitative quantitative research and was developed in three public schools: Escola Cidadã Integral Orlando Venâncio dos Santos, located in Cuité, Escola Estadual de Ensino Fundamental e Médio José Rolderick de Oliveira, Nova Floresta and Escola Estadual Professora Terezinha Carolino de Souza, Jaçanã. The target audience of this research was composed of students of the third year of high school of the three schools, totaling 88 participants. The data collection was performed on August 28, 29 and September 1, 2017, where questionnaires were applied in class times of Biology teachers in a class from each school. The analysis of the collected data was done using the categorization operation. It was found that 57% of the participants were positioned with evolutionist arguments, while the other 43% defended creationist discourses. Of the participants who posed themselves with evolution arguments, Darwinism was observed in 8% of the answers, Lamarckism in 26% and only 1 participant (2%) used arguments of the Synthetic Evolution Theory. On the other hand, the participants who stood for creationist arguments, the majority (84%) defended Intelligent Design. It can be noticed that the students have different positions related to evolution, congregating scientific, religious and philosophical conceptions. Many have mixed arguments and misconceptions, such as citing Lamarckist theories that it was Darwin who defended them, or asserting that evolution is progress, or that all aspects of evolution have been studied and well elucidated. Thus, numerous difficulties were noted in the understanding of evolutionary processes, linked to the complexity of the evolution theme and the religious conceptions of the research participants. Thus, more attention and reflection are needed on the part of teachers, but also that textbooks, curricula, and educational systems also contribute to the teaching profession, by transmitting the theme in a more scientific way, facilitating the learning of the and overcome the difficulties encountered in teaching evolution.