Mapas conceituais no ensino de Ciências: Um estudo centrado em dissertações e teses

Abstract

Concept maps are important instructional tools for demonstrating and organizing the concepts cognitively. Their use is highlighted in education for the teaching and learning process, for evaluation, as well as for the curriculum organization and planning. Considering the illustrative capacity of concept maps about knowledge and the relevance of the subject to the educational discussions and practices, we propose to analyze the academic production carried out in the Post-Graduate Programs in Teaching and Education in regard to science teaching. The question that guides this piece of research can be formulated as follows: “What has been produced about the use of concept maps with focus on natural sciences teaching, in the Post- Graduate Programs concerning teaching and education?”. It is, therefore, a bibliographic research. The data for analysis were retrieved from the virtual environment of the Coordination for the Development of Higher Education Personnel (Capes), as well as from the Brazilian Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations (BDTD) of the Brazilian Institute of Information in Science and Technology (IBICT). By accessing the virtual environments of these institutions, we defined the selection criteria and used the descriptors: 'concept map' and 'concept maps'. The first collection derived from titles and subtitles. In the second one, we looked at title, subtitle, abstract and keywords. The dissertations and theses evaluation, our survey target, was carried out from the summary files, based on qualitative analysis, aiming at revealing the following aspects: focus of discussion, survey problem, methodological approach, theoretical reference, results and conclusions, as previously defined categories. The production analysis covers the period from 2005 to 2016. The results show that concept maps, in science teaching, are mostly used in the evaluation process in Elementary School II, being highly present in the classroom practices, thus, collectively produced. Their efficiency in the teaching and learning process of school contents can be proven, and they are also a valuable tool to help researchers during the survey processes of teaching and education in general. The research points out the lack of production on the use of concept maps for curriculum organization and planning and it leaves, as educational product, a continuous training on concept maps and meaningful learning for science teachers.