Saberes tradicionais e científicos no ensino de ciências: percepções de estudantes sobre as mudanças corporais durante a puberdade

Abstract

This work addresses the articulation between traditional and scientific knowledge in Science Education, focusing on the transition process and bodily changes that occur during puberty. The general objective of this study was to investigate the implementation of a didactic sequence for learning scientific concepts about the physical and hormonal changes of puberty for 8th-grade students in a public school in the municipality of Parintins/AM. The methodology adopted was characterized as a qualitative approach, and the subjects of the research were 29 students from an 8th-grade class at the participating school. A didactic sequence on bodily changes during puberty was used as the data collection instrument. The didactic sequence was structured in four stages: 1: Initial Survey through the application of a questionnaire to students to identify their prior knowledge about puberty; 2: Multimedia and Playful Exploration through a theoretical presentation on the physical and hormonal changes of puberty. A visual scheme was presented containing illustrative images of the main bodily changes that occur during puberty in both sexes; educational videos with accessible language and informative content about the physiological and anatomical aspects of puberty; a word search containing keywords related to puberty; a contextualized educational text; a memory game with pairs of images and/or terms related to pubertal changes; 3: Individual Text Production to assess the assimilation of knowledge acquired throughout the didactic sequence. The text topic was "What I learned about puberty"; 4: Final questionnaire to assess learning during the stages of the didactic sequence. The tabulation and analysis of the research data was carried out using Discursive Textual Analysis (DTA). The results obtained demonstrated that students' experiences are strongly influenced by family and gender discourses, and that overcoming a strictly biological approach allowed students to understand physical, hormonal, and emotional transformations in a humanized way, integrated into their sociocultural context. In conclusion, it is important to highlight that the dialogue between scientific knowledge and traditional cultural heritages enriches the teaching and learning process in Natural Sciences. It is concluded that valuing students' popular knowledge is a fundamental strategy for mitigating taboos about the body, valuing students' identity, and promoting scientific literacy that makes sense in relation to their biosocial realities.