Conceptions about Chemistry: a Study of Students’ Social Representations at Maringa’s Youth and Adult Education

Author(s):

Daisy de Brito-Rezende(submitting)Camila Strictar-Pereira(presenting)

Conference:

ECER 2013

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Paper

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Contribution

In this work we investigated the ideas of Youth and Adult Education (YAE) students about Chemistry aiming to contribute to draw a curriculum more suitable to their life experiences and goals. For this, we used, as theoretical framework, the Theory of Social Representations (TSR), as proposed by Serge Moscovici, and the Central Nucleus Theory, as proposed by Jean-Claude Abric.

In 1961, Serge Moscovici, who developed his studies on social psychology, published his work "Psychanalyse, son image et son public", in which introduced the foundations of the TSR. The books, published in 1961 and 1976, presented studies that intend to unveil the public comprehension of specialized concepts as, for instance, at that time, those associated to the new discipline of psychoanalysis. This public knowledge is acquired in informal communication, through various media (TV, press, cinema, school). In this way, it is important to note that the "social representations are not just "opinions on" or "images", but collectivetheories about the real", they have their own logic, language and structure, which determine the communication between the group members and between the social groups (Alves-Mazzotti, 1994, p. 62).

The TSR refers to the study of a specific phenomenon called common sense, more specifically the common sense knowledge that has relevance to a social group. These phenomenon and the theories related are sets of articulated concepts which are due to social practices and the diversity of social groups, which share specific characteristics.

In a complementary approach to the Moscovici’s great theory, Abric "emphasizes the cognitive-structural dimension of representations" (Sá, 1998, p. 65), also called the Central Nucleus Theory. This approach allows the identification of the structure of the social representation. In this model, the representation is composed of two structures: the central and the peripheral systems. The central system comprises a reduced number of elements readily evoked by a significant number of group subjects. It is marked by its stability and resistance to change. The peripheral system includes other elements, charactherized by their flexibility, changeability and individual modulations, and protects the core of the nucleus from changes.

This approach includes the technique of free recall of words. In this technique, an inductive term is proposed to a group which subjects may individually write the words or expressions that most immediately comes to their minds. In a second question, they are asked to rank the terms therein proposed, enabling data to be treated by combination of the criteria of frequency and hierarchy, thus indicating the structures of the social representation of the group studied as showed by the equations depicted in methodology.

Method

This research refers to 75 Brazilian High School YAE students, with ages ranging between 19 and 62 years, from 2 governmental units (Maringá, Paraná). A questionnaire with two questions was proposed to the subjects. Firstly, the students were asked to write the four words immediately recalled to their minds by free association with the keyword 'chemistry'; after, they hierarchizaded these words or expressions. To process the information, two complementary methods have been employed: the analysis of meaning (Bardin, 2000) and the structural approach to social representations (Abric apud Sá, 1996). In the first approximation, the students' evocations were grouped and organized through semantic criteria, and categories are proposed. Considering the structural approach, which combines the frequency and the hierarchical order of the evocations, we could identify the central nucleus of the social representation concerning 'chemistry' for this social group.

Expected Outcomes

From the analysis of meaning of the total 277 words evocated (Bardin, 2000) emerged two categories; the number of words (n) and the frequency of words (f) evocated suggest that the informal aspects are more present to these students' minds than the formal approach to the subject presented in school: Formal Knowledge (FK; f=37%; n=41/118≠words) and Informal Knowledge (IK; f=63%; n=77/118≠words). Only 3 of the 14 subcategories proposed concentrate the students´ preferred words d: Tools (FK; f=11%); Chemical concepts (FK; f=13%) and Materials (IK; f=37%), suggesting some correlation between chemistry and the everyday life. The prevalence of evocations in the Informal Knowledge category (subcategory Materials) indicate that most of these students relate Chemistry to materials and objects handled in day-to-day life, as foods or cosmetics. The structural analysis allows us to know the central structure of the representations of a group and identify its core. In this group, five words constitute the core, two related to the FK (calculation, periodic table) and three related to the IK (water, medicine and salt). Thus, we can conclude that the representation of these students concerning Chemistry is associated to information related to the everyday life, to the common sense knowledge.

References

ABRIC, J-C. A abordagem estrutural das representações sociais. In: Moreira, A. S. P. & Oliveira, D. C. (Org.), Estudos interdisciplinares de representações sociais. Goiânia: AB, p. 27-38, 2000. ARRUDA, A. Teoria das representações sociais e teorias de gênero. Cadernos de Pesquisa, nº 117, p. 127 – 147. Novembro/ 2002. BARDIN, L. Análise de conteúdo. Lisboa: Edições 70, tradução L. A. Reto & A. Pinheiro, 2000. FLAMENT, C. (2006) Structure, dynamique et transformation des representations sociales. In: ABRIC, J.-C. (2006). Pratiques sociales et représentations. 4 ed. Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, cap. 2, p. 37-58. FRANCO, M.L.P.B.. Representações sociais, ideologia e desenvolvimento da consciência. Caderno de pesquisa, v. 34, n. 121, p. 169-186, jan./abr. 2004. JODELET, D. (Org). As representações sociais. Rio de Janeiro: EdUERJ, 2001. MADEIRA, K. L.; Leanne Silva de Sousa; FREITAS, T. M. N.; BARBOSA, S. C.; AYRES, M. C. C. Concepções dos alunos sobre o ensino de química na Educação de Jovens e Adultos (EJA). II Simpósio de Produtividade em Pesquisa e II Encontro de Iniciação Científica do IFPI, 2009, Piauí. MADEIRA, K.L. Percepção dos alunos sobre o ensino de química na Educação de Jovens e Adultos (EJA). Monografia. Instituto Federal de Educação, Ciência e Tecnologia do Piauí – IFPI, Teresina, Piauí, 2010 MADEIRA, M.C. Representações Sociais e Educação: algumas reflexões. Natal: Edufrn, 1998, p. 146. MAZZOTTI, T.B. Representação social de “problema ambiental”: uma contribuição à educação ambiental. Revista Brasileira de Estudos Pedagógicos. Brasília: INEP, v.78, n.188/189/190, p.86-123, jan/dez, 1997. MOSCOVICI, S. Representações Sociais: Investigação em Psicologia Social. Petrópolis: Vozes. 2003. SÁ, C.P. Núcleo central das representações sociais. Petrópolis: Vozes, 1996. SÁ, C.P. A construção do objeto de pesquisa em representações sociais. Rio de Janeiro: EdUERJ, 1998. SPINK, M.J. (Org.). O Conhecimento no Cotidiano: as representações Sociais na Perspectiva da Psicologia Social. São Paulo: Brasiliense, 1995.

Author Information

Daisy de Brito-Rezende (submitting)

Universidade de São Paulo, Brazil

Camila Strictar-Pereira (presenting)

Universidade de São Paulo, Brazil

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