Construção de um perfil conceitual de vida

AUTOR(ES)
DATA DE PUBLICAÇÃO

2005

RESUMO

The objective of this research was to construct a conceptual profile of life, discovering the areas that constitute this profile. The initial hypothesis was that the concept of life has multiple meanings and moreover, that it behaves like a conceptual profile. In addition a methodology was sought whereby the occurrence of areas of the conceptual profile of life could be developed. The areas of the profile were identified as belonging to the following three genetic domains: socio-cultural, onto-genetic and micro-genetic. Two data-collection tools were used: a questionnaire and an interview with problem- situations (micro-genetic context). The main source for identification of the areas was the empirical data obtained by the questionnaire. Discussions about the concept of life and its history (socio-cultural domain) were also taken into consideration. A review of the literature about informal conceptions of students (onto-genetic domain) was also conducted. The data-collection tools were used with Biology undergraduate students and graduate students of Ecology and Genetics at the Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG). The questionnaire included four questions, of which items 1, 2c and 3 were used to construct the conceptual profile. The sample pool for the questionnaire consisted of 120 students, in their 1st , 3rd , 4th and 5th semesters, respectively. Interviews, based on problem-situations developed from the attempt to define life within the program of artificial life, were conducted with eight graduate students. The objective of the interviews was to confirm the existence of the areas of the profile, and their status in the subjects conscience, after completion of the education process and having completed an undergraduate degree in biology. Analysis of the questionnaire, together with the review of the concept of life, resulted initially in seven categories, which could correspond to seven zones of the profile. Further study revealed that these seven categories could be reduced to three basic areas that the interviewees use when explaining their concepts of life: externalism (wherein life is understood as something exterior, or that tends to be outside the one living it); internalism (wherein life is understood as processes or properties inherent to the one living it); and relational (wherein life is understood as a relation among entities or the definition is given in terms of the relation between concepts). Research then followed from these reduced categories, on certain concepts about life that had developed throughout history and of definitions within the biological area or in dialogue with the area, during the twentieth century. The results point to the conclusion that the concept for life shows profiles and also that it is possible to construct individual profiles. Furthermore, the profiles for life are extremely varied. Analysis of the data also points to the fact that such profiles change and develop over the course of the undergraduate career in the Biological Sciences, showing an increase in the internalist area and a decrease in the externalist and relational. The results of the interviews reveal an awareness of their conceptual profiles on the part of the students. After the areas of the conceptual profile for life were determined, they were then investigated in college-level textbooks in a search for definitions and notions, in order to gather information regarding the ideas about life that circulate among students. Analysis of fifteen general biology textbooks and specific undergraduate manuals demonstrated that the internalist area appears in all the books, the externalist area appears in only one, and the relational also in only one. An important co-occurrence, therefore, can be observed between the data obtained from the questionnaires, and those that circulate among the students, in the form of textbooks and manuals. Thus, this study proposes a conceptual profile for life and reaches the conclusion that, during the educational process, an evolution occurs in the sense of restriction of areas of the profile. The observation that there is a conscious awareness of the profile, based on the interviews with the graduate students, raises the possibility of adopting teaching strategies that promote discussions about the concept of life, during undergraduate studies. Such discussion would enable contact with biological paradigms that can better orient the students, promoting a more integrated perspective in biological knowledge.

ASSUNTO(S)

educação teses. ciência estudo e ensino. vida (biologia)

ACESSO AO ARTIGO

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