Abstract:

Experimental Science is constantly changing. Knowledge is more complex than simply the reproduction of information available in text books. Life sciences have undergone a recent explosion with the incorporation of technologies for high capacity and resolution. We can mention, for example, genomics and proteomics, supported by bioinformatics and applied in biology and biochemistry. The objective of the project is to make science teachers more suited to student needs during the teaching-learning process. The Municipal Secretary of Education at Rio de Janeiro, in the year 2011, launched an initiative denominated "Ginásio Experimental Carioca". This initiative has eighteen schools located among ten regional coordinators of education in the Rio de Janeiro city. This is an attempt to improve the academic performance of elementary school students of the second segment, using different methods: multipurpose teachers; full time classes; life project; thematic classrooms; among others. To develop the project, forty teachers who teach science and math at these schools were taken to the laboratories at the Medical Biochemistry Institute/UFRJ. That comprises the "Ginásio Experimental Carioca”. Teachers were divided into five groups. During this period, they were involved in the process of scientific experimentation, applying the steps of scientific method in experiments that had as a central theme the biology of the mosquito Aedes aegypti. This is an opportunity for involvement of teachers with the knowledge and to developed new concepts at the bench stands of the labs that may be tackled in the classroom. The participating teachers completed a questionnaire (Inventary of development cognitive of Parker - IDCP) to analyze their cognitive at different times of the project. This allows the identification of possible changes in the relationship of teachers with the knowledge. In parallel, conceptual maps were developed by the students of participating teachers in order to draw a relationship between the teacher's cognitive development and changes in the conceptual structure of their students. In the first moment, conceptual maps of the students show more problems among at central theme and IDCP of the teachers show a basic cognitive stage. We believe such strategy may expose science teachers to real science and improve the development of knowledge and concepts to their future students.

Keywords:

Teacher, learning, cognitive, conceptual maps, IDCP.