Educação CTS em ciências da natureza e sua contribuição no enfrentamento da pós-verdade: da discussão da formação de professores a aplicação de um itinerário formativo no novo ensino médio

Abstract

STS education has been present since the 80s, in discussions in the teaching of Natural Sciences in the country. However, its implementation in the school environment is not yet a reality. Currently, the greater ease of access and dissemination of information brings challenges, such as post-truth, in which the contents of the só-called fake news are presented with emotional appeal, directing readers’ understanding to untruths instead of facts. This has already caused social damage and, probably, impacts on the dissemination and teaching of Science. A more critical training is needed from the Basic Education stage to higher education courses. STS Education, based on its assumptions that lead to the critical formation of the student, is defended here as a way of confronting post-truth, when it is present in the classroom. The main objective of this research was to analyze the challenges of teachers in the use of STS Education and in post-truth times and the development of a discipline of formative itinerary in the area of Natural Sciences of the new high school using STS Education in facing post-truth. To analyze the issues related to the challenges of teachers, the analysis of the production and discussions in a STS discipline aimed at Chemistry undergraduates was carried out and the didactic transposition of Chemistry undergraduates in the internship stage was analyzed. Regarding the search for an application of STS in the confrontation of post-truth, a semester course with 32 hours/class was developed as an educational product, organized from the assumptions of STS Education and seeking the formation of critical students prepared for the post-truth era. Questionnaires, interviews, recordings of conversations and material developed by the research subjects throughout the development of the classes when the discipline was applied in a private school were part of the data collection. The research is a qualitative analysis and the format chosen in this thesis was the multipaper. The results showed that the application of STS Education is still a challenge in basic education, mainly due to the short time and the large volume of content in the subjects. Regarding the educational product, it proved to be effective in advancing the students’ criticality, they were finally prepared to refute false information and make use of reliable sources of research, in addition to demonstrating the concern with the correction of false information. The educationalproduct, as it has a multidisciplinary character, can be applied by teachers who teach different subjects, which makes it more comprehensive and can be adapted to the reality of different schools. STS Education has shown a crucial role in post-truth times.