Atividades investigativas nos livros de ciências

Abstract

This work consisted in evaluating science textbooks adopted in public schools in the city of Teresina and analyzing them regarding the science activities present in them, investigating in them the characteristics of research activities. The analysis was based on the framework on cognitive processes and types of investigative activities produced by Chinn and Malhotra (2002) and identified the stages of the scientific work present in the researched activities. In this work, three (3) science textbooks of the 9th grade were analyzed: Joao Usberco (2012), Natural Sciences: learning with everyday life (Eduardo Leite do Canto - 2009) and Sciences: Matter and Energy (Fernando Gewandsznajder - 2013). The results showed that (74.7%) of the total activities present in the analyzed books do not have any of the cognitive processes present in investigative activities and that (1.3%) have three or more of these cognitive processes. These figures reveal that the use of investigative activities in the textbook is still too scarce and that even among the activities that have some of the present cognitive processes, the difference between them in the processes present in an authentic investigative activity is still quite significant.