Banca de DEFESA: MARCIO KLEDIR REGIS CASTRO

TEACHING GYM AND SIGNIFICANT LEARNING

School Physical Education; Meaningful Learning; Fitness.

In recent decades Physical Education teachers have sought to improve their pedagogical practice in dealing with the contents of the area. Appropriating in practice of theoretical and methodological assumption in the teaching and learning process of these contents will increasingly contribute to the appreciation and legitimation of Physical Education at school. David Ausubel's meaningful learning theory (1963) which seeks to promote teaching and learning process with senses and meanings for students, overcoming a mechanical learning of contents, has gained space in research, studies and practical application in education systems. This research aimed to analyze the teaching of gymnastics in a class of the 8th year of elementary school, based on the perspective of meaningful learning. The qualitative methodology, using processes of participatory methodologies, in the specific case of this work, the research-intervention. Thirty students from the 8th grade of elementary school in the final years of a municipal public school in the interior of Ceará participated in the study. The interventions took place in 07 meetings with two twinned classes. The classes are 50 minutes each. Therefore, the proposal was developed in 14 classes. The instruments for data collection involved: pre- and post-intervention questionnaires, professor's field journal and students' portfolios. The collected data were transcribed, reviewed, organized and classified based on the analysis of coding categories proposed by Bogdan and Binken (1994). The main results indicated that by favoring a teaching model in which the student is at the center of the process and the teacher plays the important role of mediator, it favored the learning of gymnastics content. It was observed that providing classroom spaces where students externalize their knowledge, perceptions and reflections and which can also dialogue with each other and with the teacher, contributed to this meaningful learning environment. It was identified that when treating the gymnastic content based on the principles of the theory in question, it enabled a better development of the content in the conceptual, procedural and attitudinal dimensions. It is concluded that a proposal for classes dealing with gymnastics content, based on the principles of meaningful learning, contributed significantly to reflections and possibilities in dealing with this content.