Bacteriologia na educação básica: formas de abordagem nos livros didáticos de escolas da rede estadual e particular de ensino do município de Cuité - PB.

Abstract

Bacteriology is among several areas of Biological Sciences that allow numerous possibilities for relations with common aspects of everyday life. However, contradictory to the interest that can foster in students, their study continues to run in the traditional way, relying often with the aid of the textbook as the main or only recourse. Based on this assumption, the objective of this study was to analyze the way in which bacteriology is found inserted in the books used by four schools in the city of Cuité, PB. For this, initially it was did a comparative study of textbooks, with an emphasis on general and specific qualitative aspects of the topic. Subsequently, it was examined by means of questionnaires, the methodology used by teachers in the classroom, as well as the knowledge that students of the 8th year of elementary school and 3rd year of high school have on the subject. It was found that most of the textbooks examined, although not containing serious conceptual errors, have weaknesses and inadequacies regarding the thematic approach, which can compromise student learning. The results obtained through the questionnaires indicated that most teachers is confined to lectures and to the use of the textbook as a only resource for research and reference for students. It was also observed that, despite having already studied on the subject, a considerable portion of 22% of the 149 participating students showed prevalence of misconceptions about bacteria, probably due to the lack of association of content with the situations of day to day. It was concluded that teachers should be prepared to choose the right teaching materials to be used by schools since some books don't offer the establishment of relations of the subjects with the problems of society. In addition, teachers should seek to identify the students' prior knowledge to assist in the construction of knowledge, especially when dealing with matters that require a lot of abstraction.