Investigando os raciocínios argumentativos de estudantes do Ensino Médio por meio de um estudo de caso

Abstract

Chemistry teaching approached in a traditional way can contribute to the predominance of a decontextualized, passive and unreflective teaching, without space for students to present their ideas, arguments or even question the applicability of scientific knowledge. In this context, the Case Study can allow the student an active participation, autonomy and direction of their own learning, as well as enable the investigation and identification of a problem situation, the search for information, the analysis of alternatives, the raising of hypotheses, reaching possible solutions, making the judgment of these and, from these requirements, reaching a decision. The present work sought to investigate the argumentative reasoning constructed by high school students throughout a Lesson Sequence (SA) centered on the Case Study "Yogurt Consumption". The Case specifically deals with a teenage girl who is experiencing a time of anxiety and concerned about her health and well-being, the student requests help learning about dairy products and the yogurt diet. The Case invites the reader to find possible solutions for the student's diet according to her specifics. The SA, composed of eight lessons, each lasting 50 minutes, was given to two 3rd grade classes in a public school. The data analyzed in this dissertation, to follow the students' argumentative reasoning, were: i) answers to a question that requested the indication of a yogurt from the sensory analysis activity developed in class 4, ii) written work delivered in class 7 and iii) oral work with the solution of the Case presented in class 8. To verify whether the objectives of the study were met, the students' arguments systematized through argumentative reasoning and complexity levels were analyzed, according to the methodology developed by Martins and Justi (2017), as well as the characteristics of "a good case" according to Herreid (1998a) and Graham (2010). It is worth noting that the methodology of analyzing arguments by means of argumentative reasoning makes students' ideas explicit, besides allowing the characterization of existing relationships in the structuring of the argument. From the observation of the Case narrative, we emphasize that most of the characteristics of a "good case" were contemplated. As for the analysis of the argumentations about the choice of yogurt through argumentative reasoning, we can see some changes regarding the choice of yogurt, which may have occurred due to the activities performed in the SA. It was observed that by the answers to the sensory analysis questionnaire (Class 4), most of the groups chose yogurt C, which may be related to the fact that it is a yogurt often consumed and that tastes better. And when analyzing the choice of yogurt through written and oral work, there was a change in relation to their first choice, this change may be related to the label analysis activity (Class 5), when the students could analyze the nutritional composition of yogurts and the justifications started to be based on scientific knowledge such as the presence of lower amount of carbohydrates or lipids. Several were the students' indications, originating several lines of argumentative reasoning (LRA) with different levels of complexity. When comparing the number of LRA's we verified that at the final moment the students expressed five times more LRA than the one presented at the moment of sensory analysis, indicating that the Case Study may have contributed to the process of decision making and formulation of arguments.