The didactic transposition of the ionizing radiations in physics textbooks

• Grant number: 18/21823-9
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: August 01, 2019
• End date: December 31, 2020
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Education - Educational Teaching and Learning
• Principal Investigator: Leandro Londero da Silva
• Grantee: Alvaro Cesar da Silva Junior
• Host Institution: Instituto de Biociências, Letras e Ciências Exatas (IBILCE). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de São José do Rio Preto. São José do Rio Preto , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Authors of didactic works destined to the teaching of physics, for middle school, began to insert topics of Modern and Contemporary Physics (FMC) in their productions. To critically analyze the textual presentations of this topic, that is, the way in which the authors approach the FMC becomes an important research topic. We start from the observation of the absence of a study that analyzes the presentation of the Physics of Ionizing Radiation and the phenomenon of Radioactivity in Didactic Collections of Physics destined to High School. This curricular topic was chosen in view of our challenge of incorporating it in a clear and objective way in physics classes. In view of this, we aim to investigate how the Physics of Ionizing Radiation and the phenomenon of Radioactivity are approached by the authors of the collections belonging to the National Program of Didactic Book (PNLD). We will try to answer the following questions: 1) What are the traces of guiding processes of didactic transposition (dessincretization, depersonalization, contextualization, and programmability) related to Ionizing Radiation Physics and to the Radioactivity phenomenon in the didactic collections analyzed? 2) What are the linguistic resources used by the authors to discuss the Physics of Ionizing Radiation and the phenomenon of Radioactivity? 3) Are deformed images of scientific work presented in the analyzed works? We emphasize that as Almouloud (2011) argues, in order to teach a scientific content at a level of schooling (fundamental, average or higher), it is necessary to make it accessible to students. Therefore, it is necessary to transform it from a reference knowledge that, in general, is the knowledge of the specialists of the discipline (wise knowledge). We chose to analyze the 12 didactic collections of physics belonging to the PNLD of the triennium 2018-2020. We consider significant and appropriate for our study the use of Yves Chevallard's Didactic Transposition. We will proceed to a literature review to identify the studies already published that deal with the didactic transposition of physical contents into printed materials. We will identify the topic of Ionizing Radiation and the Radioactivity phenomenon in the selected collections, performing the photocopy and registration of the pages located in each of the volumes that make up each collection. The identification will be carried out by means of the integral reading of the texts that compose the volumes. We will analyze the presentation and the way in which the authors approach and insert the discussion of Ionizing Radiation and the phenomenon of Radioactivity, highlighting the linguistic resources used for the presentation of the content. We will choose the "knowledge of reference" that is the knowledge of the specialists (the wise knowledge). We intend to use, at first, as reference material, printed materials used at the undergraduate level and produced by scientists such as, for example, the work "Quantum Physics: atoms, molecules, solids, nuclei and particles authored by Robert Martin Eisberg and Robert Resnick, for being one of the most used works in undergraduate courses in physics. We will analyze the didactic transposition occurring through the theoretical reference used, highlighting the decontextualization, depersonalization, and programmability that occurred in textbooks. In the course of the analyzes, we will try to observe if the authors present discussions regarding the contributions of Heinrich Hertz, Phillip Lenard, Wilhelm Röntgen, Henri Becquerel, Charles Henry, Niewenglowski, Gustav Bémont, Eugène-Anatole Demarçay, Marie Curie and Pierre Curie. In the end, we will compare the works from the point of view of the didactic sequence used by the authors, in order to analyze if they present, among themselves, a regularity in the presented sequence. We will finish the study with the writing of the work, systematize the answers found and point out the implications for the Teaching.