Representação social dos autores dos livros didáticos de física sobre o conceito de calor

Abstract

The aim of this research was to make a critical analysis of some Brazilian didactic books of physics, intended to secondary education and also to Higher education, to detect and describe the author's social representation about the heat concept. By means of the presentation of some reflections of the studies made on the alternative conceptions, we showed that the results of these researches were not satisfactory in the aimed conceptual change. Thus, in the case of the heat concept, we went beyond of a simple cataloging as correct or incorrect the representations of the authors of didactic books of physics. Our interest was to explain the mechanisms used by the social group to establish the representation that gives certain group identity and guides its action. Our theoretical preparation to the execution of the research consisted of a well-estabilished bibliographical revision in four pillars: Understanding how occurred the evolution of the physical concepts of energy and heat in the history of science; the reading texts of Social Representations based on the Moscovic theoretical perspective; the reading of texts on syntonized with the Rhetoric and Argument with the theoretical perspective that Chaïm Perelman and Lucie Olbrechts-Tyteca presented in the "Treaty of the Argument - the new Rhetoric"; and the study and analysis of the research results on the heat concept. The results showed that there is a social representation of the didactic book of physics authors, intended to secondary education and also to Higher education, about the heat concept. The central core of this representation is constituted by the metaphor "Heat is a substance, a subtle fluid".