O ensino do corpo humano: sistema digestório para alunos surdos nos anos iniciais do ensino fundamental

Abstract

Brazilian educational system has raised a number of questions leading to many important reflections which are the basis of this study. Some of these reflections which are related to the students' needs for different teaching and learning processes in order to guarantee knowledge acquisition are key to this research. Specially students with hearing impairment, deafness or hearing loss, blindness and vision impairment, autism spectrum disorder, intellectual disability, among others. It is even of more interest since the study was undertaken by a deaf researcher. Being deaf since early childhood, one can experience the difficulties of ordinary learning process and accomplishment of acquiring knowledge as part of regular school system. The researcher experience has shown that the lack of appropriate learning and teaching process may lead to school dropout. That said, this work focuses on the process of teaching the human body, more specifically the digestive system, to fifth graders who are deaf and are enrolled in Brazilian public school system. The idea was to work such subject using the Brazilian Sign Language, known as "Libras". Taking into consideration knowledge, skills and educational values related to the addressed topic, this research aims to analyze how deaf students manage to contextualize their knowledge about the human body - digestive system, mediated in the classroom in Libras and in the written for of Portuguese language. Inherent principles of an exploratory, qualitative research were established as a methodological path, focusing on the determinants of a field study. Along with this design, two books in "Libras" (signposts) were analyzed regarding science content, as support material for the construction of the educational product - a pedagogical notebook, in addition to the BNCC, about the contents worked in the fifth grade on Elementary School. Such notebook was organized in two Didactic Units organized in video classes in "Libras", with subtitles and audio in Portuguese. In Unit 1, the Human Body, its parts and systems are presented. In Unit 2, it deals with the Digestive System, the organs that compose it, its function and development. In the end of each unit there are models of activities to be worked in the classroom with students with hearing impairment, deafness or hearing loss. The digital version in Portuguese (which can also be printed), provides access links for the video lessons in "Libras" of each unit and the model activities. In this context, it is believed this work has contributed to the advancement of science teaching to such students, considering their cultural, identity and linguistic specificities.