Elementary School Teachers Social Representation

Concerning Teaching-Learning Sequences

Michele M. S. Bortolai1 , Mrcia B. R. Aguilar1 , Renata
Rosenthal1 , Marcos Vogel1 , and Daisy B. Rezende1,2
1

Programa de Ps-Graduao Interunidades em Ensino de Cincias da Universidade de So

Paulo, (PIEC-USP), Rua do Mato, Travessa R, 187, Butant, So Paulo, SP, Brasil.
2
Departamento de Qumica Fundamental, Instituto de Qumica, Universidade de So Paulo,
(QFL-IQ-USP), Av. Lineu Prestes, 748, Butant, So Paulo, SP, Brasil

Abstract
The study presented here is based on the theory of social representations (Moscovici,
1978), in its structural approach, the Central Core theory (CC; Abric, 2001). The aim of
the study is to unveil the conceptions concerning Teaching-Learning Sequences (TLS) of
the teachers in a public Elementary School (ES) maintained by the city of So Paulo (SP),
Brazil. A suitable TLS for teaching scientific subjects should facilitate both the scientific
approach to the educational knowledge, as its implications for the understanding of the
material world at the student level, the epistemic dimension, favoring interpersonal
teacher-student relations, the pedagogical dimension (Mheut, 2010). The development or
use of TLSs, on which there has been a critical reflection, potentializes them as teaching
resources for the guidance of the teachers' work concerning a reflexive practice. Thus, the
educational intervention underlined by the TLS should not be reduced to the
implementation of activities in the classroom. This instrument may express expectations
about the teaching of content, action analysis timetable, result evaluation, and the
replanning of the TLS considering the observations done (Zabala, 1998).
Given this picture and the importance of Science Education in ES, a free word
questionnaire was applied to 45 teachers of ES in 2015. The teachers were requested to
express the six most relevant words they associate with the inducing term "teachinglearning sequence" after an in-service training course of 16 hours on this subject. The
information obtained from the questionnaires was analyzed with the help of the software
Evocation 2005 (Vergs et al., 2003). The structural elements constituent terms of the SR
for this social group concerning TLS were identified (Figure 1). In the basis on the
prototypical analysis, Figure 1 evidentiates the CC components of this SR concerning
TLS. It is possible to conclude that these teachers conceive the construction of the TLS
just as a tool, minimizing the importance of the didactics as a facilitator of the students
learning, although the terms of the first periphery suggest the importance of teacher / stu

Speaker
Correspondent author: dbrezend@iq.usp.br

sciencesconf.org:cirs2016:

dent relationship in the transposition of scientific knowledge to the students. These

results suggest that this teacher groups SR concerning TLS is yet primarily anchored
on technical rationality, what suggests that other training activities are required to
facilitate the implementation of a learning environment in the school that might
contribute to transform students in protagonists of their knowledge acquisition
process.

Abric, J.-C. Las Representaciones Sociales: Aspectos Tericos. In:_____ (Ed.).

Prcticas sociales y representaciones. Mxico, D.F.: Cultura Libre (2001). 11-32.
Mheut, M. Teaching-learning sequences tools for learning and/or research. In:
Boersma, K.; Goedhart, M.; Jong, O.; Eijelhof, H. (Eds.). Research and Quality of
Science Education. Holanda: Springer (2010).
Moscovici, S. Psychoanalysis, Its Image and Its Public. Cambridge (UK), Malden
(USA): Polity Press (2008).
Vergs, P.; Junique, C.; Barbry, W.; Scano, S.; Zeliger, R. Ensembles de
programmes permettant lanalyse des evocations. Aix en Provence: Universit Aix
en Provence (Manual) (2003).
Zabala, A. La practica educativa/ The Educative Practice: Como Ensear/ How to
Teach. Barcelona: Editorial Gra (1995).

Keywords: Teacher, Teaching-Learning Sequences, Central Core Theory

Figure 1: Prototypical analysis of the Social Representation about Teaching Learning Sequence, among
teachers of the municipality of So Paulo, SP, Brazil, 2016.