O livro didático de física está sendo utilizado? Sim? Não? Por quê?: o que dizem os estudantes das escolas públicas do município de Almirante Tamandaré

Abstract

This work investigates the aspects related to the use of Physics textbooks by students enrolled on public schools from the county of Almirante Tamandaré- Paraná, on their final high school years. This study is based on the categories stablished by Choppin (2004) (referential functions, instrumental, ideological or cultural and documental for the use of textbooks) and its goal, starting from a student’s point of view, is to understand the aspects of the role of Physics textbooks in the classroom. As a research instrument, it was used a questionnaire with opened and closed questions, and, with those answers, a categorization was created. The questionnaire was applied in person by the researcher in 253 students from morning and evening periods from 11 schools. In the answers it is possible to highlight the fact that the Physics textbook is not present on most student’s daily life (students that contributed to the research). On the other hand, when the textbook is used, it has mostly an instrumental function, restricted to problem solving activities. Another noted result is that most of the students would rather use the internet as a source to answer their doubts, pointing to a need to enlarge the research on the topic which would make the understanding of this result clearer, and build a basis to potentiate the high public money investment on the acquisition and distribution of Physics textbooks. Furthermore, it was verified that many students did not receive the textbook on the schools they go to, with no recognizable reason. Due to this fact, a new topic for investigation is necessary: a research with object the professors and/or school administrators in order to understand the reasons why the students do not have access to textbooks, as stablished on the PNLD (National program of Textbooks).