A motivação de professores para o uso do laboratório de ciências no ensino de biologia

Abstract

The teaching of Biology was inserted into school curricula in Brazil in the 30s. As in other countries during this period the teaching of science was developed in partnership with associations of scientists, teachers and educators linked to centers or committees with the objective of producing materials for the current school. However, the produced materials were gradually transformed into textbooks that systematically followed the steps of the scientific method. Over the decades the notion of the construction of science and scientific method was revised and the process of scientific experimentation in schools was also seen within the investigative process of knowledge construction. Considering the importance of conducting experiments and the use of the teaching laboratory, this work aims to assess the motivation of biology teachers to use the science teaching laboratory based on self-determination theory proposed by Deci and Ryan (2010). The motivation to determine the intensity and persistence of our behavior and personal or professional activities, considering that people need to feel competent and self-determined to be intrinsically motivated. We conducted a quantitative survey on the number of institutions that are linked to the public education network in the state of Paraná and are high schools. The idea was to see which ones had science labs, how many were actually used, and how many labs have a laboratory technician. The qualitative research included interviews with nine biology teachers who taught classes in science laboratories of state public schools in the town of Toledo, in order to gather information about the extrinsic and intrinsic motivation on the use of the science laboratory and the use of experimental activities in their classes. The interviews led to the formation of six categories and twelve subcategories that were constructed as proposed by Bardin (1977). The results obtained were informations about the 32 Regional Centers of Education that have 1866 institutions that are high schools, of which 1245 have a laboratory school, but just 861 laboratories are used by biology teachers. Only 191 of these 861 laboratories have a laboratory technician. According to self-determination theory, we found out that the interviewed teachers are motivated, but we identified the following factors that lead teachers to not develop motivation: too much students in class; difficulties in the preparation of practical classes due to methodological, conceptual, epistemological, and procedural issues; lack of a laboratory technician and time for preparation of practical classes. This study aimed the areas of psychology and biology, but even with an interdisciplinary perspective, both showed a lack of a state public policy on the use of the laboratory and the laboratory technician in science education. Motivational aspects of teachers in the town of Toledo, Paraná were identified in several types of intrinsic and extrinsic motivational control. Most teachers were categorized in the Control by Integration, which is a degree in the motivation process that is the closest to the intrinsic pole, considered the most authentic and desirable one.