Bioma cerrado: conhecimento de alunos do ensino médio e abordagem por professores de biologia

Abstract

The Cerrado is the second largest Brazilian biome and its wealth is highly significant and may represent up to 33% of Brazilian biodiversity. However, conservation has always been precarious because its topography conditions, terrain and easiest deforestation that led to the agricultural activity. Therefore, it is a serious threat to biome, and yet, less than 3% is protected by conservation areas. Education and dissemination of its natural resources are important processes in an attempt to demonstrate students the value, specific features and the current state of degradation of this biome. Thus this study was conducted in high school, which is characterized as the last stage of basic education. Nevertheless, high schools have gone through a difficult phase due to evasion, abandonment, and age/grade distortion among others. In addition, many students at this stage argue that the knowledge obtained at school is not consistent with their daily needs. Teaching lacks reflections which result in new pedagogical practices. Considering the importance of the Cerrado biome, it is crucial to understand how this content is worked in high school. This study aimed to verify and analyze the knowledge of high school students about the Cerrado characteristics and how the teacher discusses this subject in biology classes. It was performed a bibliographical survey of researches about Cerrado in high school and was defined the theoretical framework about some aspects of the Cerrado, high school, and some thoughts on teaching practices. The research was qualitative and it was used different procedures for data collection, such as: observation Biology classes, application of questionnaires to students, interview with three teachers and conducting focus groups with students. In addition, it was identified some aspects of official documents from high school, by means of documentary analysis. The survey was conducted by three biology teachers making a total of 143 hours of observation; and 101 high school students. The data were organized and analyzed using the content of analysis technique. Were identified four categories, which deal with the following aspects: a) influence of the media and textbooks for the students' knowledge about the Cerrado showing a stereotypical view of students; b) wealth of natural resources and the manner of the use of these by the students, showing the influence of popular knowledge and the knowledge of the importance of such resources; c) Environmental Education as the main tool in order to mitigate the damage caused to the Cerrado; d) the importance of contextualized teaching practices and the influence of the curriculum in the teaching practice. The documents mainly emphasize the importance of educating the student in an integrated manner using the contextualization and interdisciplinarity.