A docência no ensino superior e a formação continuada dos formadores de professores da área de ciências da natureza e suas tecnologias

Abstract

This study deals with the continuing education of teachers who train in the area of Natural Sciences and their Technologies (NST), participating in the extension project: Training Cycles in Science Teaching at the Federal University of the Fronteira Sul (FUFS), Campus Cerro Largo - RS. The study arises from defending the understanding of the process of continuing education as a space and time for formative dialogue and (re) construction of conceptions about teaching in the classroom, knowledge and theories, having as central questions: what is the role and what are the constituent elements of continuing education in Higher Education (HE)? The production of narratives about the life stories of the investigated teachers and the study of Research Training-Action (RTA), as a theoretical foundation, contributed to defend the perspective of continuing education as necessary to improve the processes of teaching and learning. The research, with a qualitative approach, aimed to understand the role and the constitutive elements of continuing education in HE, considering the context of investigation limited to the area of NST. The instrument used to produce the results was the production of narrative writings recorded in audio and later transcribed. In that study, six Professors working in the HE of FUFS, Campus Cerro Largo - RS in the NST area were researched. Two are from the Biological Sciences area, two from Physics and two from Chemistry, three with Postgraduate training in the basic area of Biology, Physics and Chemistry and the other three with Postgraduate Education. The investigated teachers are participants in the continuing education process developed in the Training Cycles in Science and Mathematics Teaching project. In the Cycles, teacher trainers, teachers of the basic network and graduate students participate in a collaborative and shared way. The discussion was anchored in the thematic content analysis. The views expressed by the participants point to the reflection and improvement of pedagogical practices in dialogue with initial training and basic education as important. The research also highlighted the need for attention to the constituent elements of the continuing education process: the formative dialogue, the systematization of experiences and reflective narratives. In the Formative Cycles in Science Education, the meetings contemplate the sharing of experiences and the reading and discussion of theoretical references that favor the constitution of the subject teacher trainer (of ES) in the collective along with the initial and continuing education of Basic Education teachers.