Livros didáticos de ciências: abordagem da natureza da matéria e suas representações

Abstract

The Textbook is an important tool in the teaching and learning process, being the facilitator of this process. This work aims to carry out an analysis to identify the occurrence or not of some prevalence of chemical contents in a given year, as well as approaches that may generate impediments and/or misrepresentations in the construction of chemical concepts. The analysis takes place from the identification of PNLD 2020 Science books, used from the 6th to the 9th year of elementary school, totaling 8 collections composed of 4 books each, and then 8 statements are selected in order to identify possible obstacles related to nature of matter and its representations. The analysis of selected collections revealed that textbooks are prone to errors that can significantly compromise learning. In addition, it was found that the distribution of content over the four years of elementary school is still concentrated in the 9th year, followed by the 6th year, with the 7th and 8th with greater emphasis on teaching Physics. The non-approach, or even the fragmented approach of certain contents, can generate gaps that, a posteriori, will serve as a barrier in the learning of new concepts. In the current research, for example, the analysis made about the existence of representation of ionic and covalent structures stands out, in which only 37% of the PNLD 2020 collections discussed this content. Another analysis carried out, this time on the presence of representations of covalent structures of organic molecules, it was observed that only 25% of the collections represented these structures. On the other hand, there were positive aspects in which the textbooks that addressed the subject did so adequately, as seen in the concepts of atom and density. This work allowed inferring that despite the importance of the Textbook in the teachinglearning process, the effective participation of the teacher as a mediator of knowledge is of great importance in the sense of selecting, analyzing and evaluating the textbook, considering that this instrument, for itself does not guarantee learning. Furthermore, this work hopes to contribute to the teaching and learning process in the areas of Science and Chemistry Teaching.