A disciplina de bioquímica para o curso de educação física: Um estudo de caso

Author(s)

Caetano da Costa

• Document type: Master's Dissertation
• Press: São Paulo.
• Institution: Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Conjunto das Químicas (IQ e FCF) (CQ/DBDCQ)
• Defense date: 2000-02-11

Examining board members

Bayardo Baptista Torres; Marli Eliza Dalmazo Afonso de Andre; Iolanda Midea Cuccovia

• Advisor: Bayardo Baptista Torres

Abstract

The curriculum\'s structure determines the success or the failure of a discipline. Analysing curricula from disciplines regarded as well succeeded is a suitable model to investigate the grounds responsible for the probable good performance. In this work, the discipline of Biochemistry, offered to Physical Education students at Unicamp, was selected for study due to its favorable quality indicators. There were two aims: 1) Was the discipline Biochemistry really successful?; and 2) If so, why? What curricular reasons were decisive? The methodological approach used in this work was the qualitative case study, adequate for the investigation of particular situations. The methodologies used were: a) questionnaires; b) classroom observation; c) documental analysis; d) open-ended interviews with students, monitors and professors. Data obtained from these methodologies and from analysis of the discipline curricular components were validated by means of triangulation protocols. Results stemming from questionnaires showed that the majority of students agree that they have a favorable image of the discipline, they believe in relevance of the content for their future professional life and they would attend the discipline even if it was not obligatory. Classroom observations revealed a wealthy of dialogues among students, monitors and professors, in addiction to a methodology which alternated brief participatory lectures with small-group study. For the documental analysis, texts and student evaluations from Biochemistry were selected. Students got good grades in high-Ievel questions, revealing that learning ocurred. The majority of students revealed estimation about the discipline, in conformity with the answers given in the student evaluation and in the interviews, corroborating Biochemistry\'s success. Triangulation of the results provided enough evidences in revealing the reasons for the Biochemistry discipline\'s success: (1) commitment of the professor\'s staff and cares with motivation; (2) gradual adaptation of the methodology and the evaluation; (3) way of using evaluation; (4) way of monitor\'s participation; (5) professor off-class availability. The conclusions are: a) the ways of motivating students must be planned, discussed and their practice adopted since the beginning of the discipline or course; b) the content linking with the future professional activity of the students is indispensable; c) the use of participative methodologies must be encouraged; d) the written text impact can be decreased with suitable question elaboration and immediate response feedback with correction to the students; e) the professor must modity his/her attitude of knowledge conveyor to one of organizer and guider toward information search. (AU)