Protagonismo autônomo de crianças por meio de brincadeiras científicas investigativas na educação em ciências nos anos iniciais do Ensino Fundamental

Abstract

The scientific investigative plays (SIP) are activities in which the principles of scientific toys are explored. They are built with low-budget and easy-to-acquire materials, aiming at the investigation of physical phenomena in Science Education in Primary School. This research aims at analyzing and understanding the participation of children in a fifth grade classroom in Primary Education (aging between 9 and 12 years old) in SIP performed in Science lessons in a City Public School in Juiz de Fora, MG. Scientific investigative plays (SIP) were designed to answer questions that had come up while developing the research: How is autonomous protagonism formed in children during SIPs? What is the outcome of this protagonism? How to motivate children to perform autonomous protagonism in Science Education? The research was done on a qualitative approach, under a social and historical perspective, favoring the understanding of social phenomena through observing and intervening in their reality. Data was gathered through immersion in the investigated group, first through observation and then through performing activities of building and handling scientific toys. Three points were noted in locus: informal interactions between the children and the Science teacher of the investigated group, drawn or written records from the children and audio and visual records of the activities. From the data drawn during the immersion, autonomous and directed protagonism were outlined, and subsequently applied as categories for classifying the episodes used for analyses. Results gathered show that SIPs encourage children to exert autonomous protagonism on the activities, through the autonomous actions of playing, investigating, elating questions, hypotheses or uncommon explanations, idealizing and building objects and socializing their ideas with other people, improving their skills regarding challenges they face. This study also shows that SIPs improve the inclusion for children with special needs, compelling them to perform autonomous protagonism in educational activities. By doing so, we highlight the relevance of SIPs as a means for Science teachers of early years of Primary School to promote activities that encourage autonomous protagonism in children, bearing in mind that taking the leading role of an activity autonomously and responsibly is paramount for the formation of the contemporary citizen.