Banca de DEFESA: LUZIA MIRNIA VIEIRA FERNANDES

Contributions to the teaching of natural sciences: challenges and possibilities in the construction of a didactic sequence for the final years of Elementary School

Special Education - Natural Sciences – Didactic sequence – Inclusive practice

The arrival of students with disabilities in regular classrooms caused significant changes, especially among teachers, who had to transform their teaching practices in order to meet the individualities of all students in increasingly heterogeneous classes. In this regard, the present study arises from the concerns of teachers in the final years of Elementary School who reported the difficulties in teaching certain content to classes that are so diverse in their rhythms and ways of learning. In face of the broad universe of content covered, the research was focused on the curricular component of Natural Sciences. The investigation, with a qualitative approach, exploratory and descriptive in nature, is configured in terms of procedures as collaborative research (Ibiapina and Ferreira, 2005). The research was based on studies by Zabala (1998), (2008), Oliveira (2013), Kranz (2014), Zerbato and Mendes (2021), as well as official documents such as the National Policy on Special Education from the Perspective of Inclusive Education (Brazil, 2008) and the National Common Curricular Base (Brazil, 2017). This research presents as subjects participants teachers and students in the last years of basic education, with the general objective of mapping the challenges and possibilities of teaching-learning of the Natural Sciences discipline taught to a class in the final years of Elementary Education at a school in the public education located in the city of Natal–RN. Specific objectives: identifying, with teachers and students, the most challenging content; elaborate, in a collaboratively way, a didactic sequence with a Universal Design for Learning approach for Natural Sciences classes in an Elementary School class - Final Years; and, evaluate and document the perceptions of those researched involved regarding the product. The questionnaire, focus group and co-design tool were chosen as instruments for data construction. For data analysis, the Bardin method (2011) was adopted. Based on the participants' speeches, the dissertation resulted in the construction of an inclusive didactic sequence on the content “Cells” as part of the curriculum of the Natural Sciences discipline in the 6th year of Elementary School. It is expected that with this work, reflections on teaching will be encouraged, enabling inclusive educational practices to provide effective learning for all students.