Education and ways of seeing: learning from objects and their representations

Author(s)

Ana Paula Moreli Tauhyl

• Document type: Master's Dissertation
• Press: São Paulo.
• Institution: Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Museu de Arqueologia e Etnologia (MAE)
• Defense date: 2013-10-30

Examining board members

Elaine Farias Veloso Hirata; Regina Maria da Cunha Bustamante; Carla Gibertoni Carneiro

• Advisor: Elaine Farias Veloso Hirata

Abstract

This Master thesis describes and analyses a set of educational activities created from some products developed by the Laboratory for the Study of the Ancient City (Labeca - MAE/USP). These products are the DVD \"Siracusa Cidade Antiga\" (\"Syracuse, Ancient City\"), maps, plans, photographs, reconstructions and models of four ancient Greek cities - Poseidonia, Olynth, Priene and Selinus. The activities aimed at divulge Labeca\'s products by testing them with the audience, seeking to expand the vision of ancient Greece commonly presented in school. The project had another three goals. The first was to show how the scientific thinking of the archaeologist works. The second one aimed at presenting to the students the diversity of languages used to represent things and how these languages must be criticized. Our last goal was to draw the students\' attention to the material things surrounding them. As audience, we selected two classes of the 1st. year of High School from the Escola de Aplicação of the Faculdade de Educação (Faculty of Education) in the University of São Paulo. Initially, the students watched the DVD \"Siracusa Cidade Antiga\" (\"Syracuse, Ancient City\") in their classroom. A few weeks later, they visited the MAE/USP, where they were presented to maps, plans, photographs, reconstructions and models of four ancient Greek cities. Finally, we paid a second visit to their classroom and the students had the chance to handle archaeological and contemporary objects. Three questionnaires were submitted to the students by the end of each meeting. They aimed at diagnosing the public reaction to the set of activities and identifying whether their perspective on archaeology and ancient Greek cities had changed throughout the meetings. The answers from the last questionnaire, which was applied seventy days after the first one, showed some changes about the students\' perception of Archaeology, according to themselves. Furthermore, we observed that other characteristics linked to the Greek cities were included in the imaginary of the students, in addition to those listed by them in the initial questionnaire. (AU)

• FAPESP's process: 11/04957-2 - Education and ways of seeing: learning from objects and their representations
• Grantee: Ana Paula Moreli Tauhyl
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Master