Abstract:

In April 2017, the Ministry of Education and Culture of Brazil (MEC) delivered the third version, considered as final, of the National Curricular Common Base (BNCC) document to the National Education Council (CNE). It is a normative document that defines the organic and progressive set of essential learning that all students must develop throughout the stages and modalities of basic education. In Brazil, it comprehends child, elementary and secondary education. In describing the essential learning of each discipline, the document establishes the obligatory use of competency-based education, emphasizing the need to adapt curricula to this method, as well as the need for training and qualification of teachers throughout the public education network. Since this educational policy implementation requires extensive changes in the curricula and also in the methodologies applied in the classroom, this study sought to understand how basic education teachers position themselves at the forefront of this situation: what is the perception, knowledge and practice of teachers of basic education on competency-based education today? This study collected data and followed the activities, for six months, of a basic education teachers group who organized themselves into a community of practice to reflect and debate on these changes. Initially, a bibliographical review was sought to understand the multiplicity of views of competency-based education, relating the different theoretical approaches with the vision adopted in the official document. After that, this study sought to identify the perception of teachers regarding knowledge, understanding and classroom practices related to competency-based education, so a questionnaire was developed to be applied in schools where each participant worked. Thus it was possible to verify the relation between theory and practice. Through a free-floating reading of the answers it was possible to elaborate five categories of analysis: definition of the concept “competence”, former training on competency-based education, level of experience in teaching by competences, knowledge of the official document (BNCC) and agreement/disagreement regarding its content. Bardin methodology was used as basis for the textual analysis and creation of categories, for statistical and deeper analysis, the software of textual analysis IRAMUTEQ was used. The questionnaire, with fourteen questions - seven open-ended and seven closed-ended, was tested by fifteen basic education teachers from different schools and randomly applied to approximately 100 teachers. In the analysis phase, we tried to classify and categorize the data according to a mixed approach, using techniques of quantitative and qualitative analysis, for example, by the hierarchical Describing Classification (CHD) method of Textual Statistical Analysis and techniques of Content Analysis. A score was created to define proximity indices to the official document, seeking to make a diagnosis of the target audience, regarding training needs, practice and experience. The results indicated that the teachers have different knowledge and practices from the theory and the official document, finding themselves in a different situation in relation to the requirements of the Ministry. This result demonstrates the disparity between public policies in the area of education and reality, which points to great difficulties in its implementation, regarding teachers’ formation.

Keywords:

Education, policies, competency-based education, brazil.