Nuclear Energy by focusing science, technology and society approach at inicial training of physics teachers

Author(s)

Thirza Pavan Sorpreso

• Document type: Doctoral Thesis
• Press: Campinas, SP.
• Institution: Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Faculdade de Educação
• Defense date: 2013-01-11

Examining board members

Maria José Pereira Monteiro de Almeida; Décio Auler; Suzani Cassiani; David Mendez Soares; Jorge Megid Neto

• Advisor: Maria José Pereira Monteiro de Almeida

Abstract

The present research is justified by the constant need to improve the teaching methods in Physics. Our main approach consisted in addressing elements of nuclear physics to undergraduate students using Science, Technology and Society (STS), a discipline offered at the beginning of their formation. The STS approach was incorporated from extra-scholar activities claiming a more critical view of Science and Technology, and considering them as non-neutral institutions (i.e., influenced by the social context of their production and use). The STS approach is used in this work in order to question future teachers in Physics about the need to break with a school system based only on calculations and problem solving, thereby seeking further understanding of nuclear physics in a broader way (i.e., taking into account the non-neutrality of Science, its production and the complex relationships it has established with the Society and Technology). To develop the teaching work, we created a teaching unit from the pre-supposition of a speaker, the choice of a Nuclear Physics program, and the emphasis on certain elements of the STS approach, adapting them to the conditions of production discipline where the research was developed, "Knowledge in Physical Education I". To theoretically justify the constitution of the unit, we presented the rationale of elements present in the teaching unit, such as the inclusion of topics of social relevance; the historical context of the STS approach; the need to think about the teaching of Physics in their relationship with society; the need to provide undergraduate students an experience of STS; the importance of exploring the relationship between STS; the need to embrace a non-neutral vision in physics teaching; the limits between the inter-disciplinarity and the specificity contents. We used some notions of Discourse Analysis as a theoretical and methodological framework for the establishment of this research, in addition to our theoretical framework which also implied some notions related to the relationship between school and society and between STS. Eventually, we performed discourses analyses of undergraduate students and found that the development of the teaching unit created conflicts in their imaginary and shifts, causing students to broaden their productions of meaning on the STS approach and some of its elements. In particular, we found that students incorporated the notion of inter-disciplinarity as a joint effort between teachers, and reserved an important role for the History of Science in a practice STS. (AU)

• FAPESP's process: 09/01487-5 - Nuclear Energy with Science, Technology and Society in Undergraduate Physics Teachers Course
• Grantee: Thirza Pavan Sorpreso
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate