Ensino Investigativo, receptivo ou ambos? Análise do interesse e aprendizado após duas sequências didáticas sobre o sistema digestório

Abstract

The aim of this paper wasto evaluate strategies that would beefficient in teaching Biology and that would arise situational and personal interest in high school students to learn the basic concepts of the human digestive system. It is a proposal to apply two didactic sequences, one that employs only direct instruction and other that balances direct receptive instruction and investigative teaching activity. This research is a quasi-experimental research which uses qualitative and quantitative resources. The proposal aimed to verify whether investigative teaching arranged with receptive teaching made by direct instruction promotes significant learning of the digestive system, through the logical connection between prior knowledge and new information, in a more efficient way than a didactic sequence made just by direct instruction does. As cognitive assessment, an individual summative evaluation was applied with a transcendence question as a challenge to verify if, in addition to the elementary concepts on the subject, students would be able to apply these concepts in other situations and contexts. Moreover, situational interest was recorded through observation and reporting of student engagement during classes. To assess student satisfaction with the activities developed in the didactic sequences, we realized a survey to appraise the Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT). Personal interest in studying the topic was assessed on a Likert-type scale validated for Portuguese, before and after the application of the didactic sequences. The results showed that the didactic sequences did not change the personal interest score, but the instrument constructed to rate CSAT registered a high situational interest in class engagement and satisfaction. Both didactic sequences promoted cognitive gain, registered in the summative test outcomes. The results also suggest that the investigativeactivity prepared the students better to solve unpublished questions (i.e. transcendence) related to the concepts and proposals of the digestive system.