Biologia moderna (Amabis e Martho): o conteúdo de evolução em uma obra didática do ensino médio

Abstract

The Theory of Evolution provides information that allows the understanding of the most varied phenomena of nature, also interfering in most fields of human knowledge and therefore being a central theme in science and the teaching of biology. This study sou ght to evaluate how the content of biological evolution is addressed in a collection of textbooks of Biology approved in the most current selection of the PNLD, a collection that is widely used in Brazilian schools. The theoretical and methodological foundations of qualitative research were used, as well as bibliographic research, theoretical guides for performing critical analysis and Thematic Analysis to identify approaches to evaluate the theme evolution in the content of the work. As a pre-analysis, a list of key terms related to the theme was obtained from the work, from which six categories of analysis were prepared, grouped into three indicators of focus. The analysis of the work resulted in the detection of 2,683 appearances of key terms related to the theme evolution, with 1,882 appearances recorded in the Conceptual Approach of Evolution, 454 in the Approach on Reading Biological Diversity and 347 in the Social Approach of Evolution. The theory of evolution permeates the entire work and is the basis of the instruction offered about life. However, flaws were identified, especially regarding the conceptualization of evolution, and outdating related to modern advances in the area. An important gap is found in the fact that the work, in its teaching plan , distances the diversity of life from its evolution, while the reading of this diversity is outdated in relation to Cladistics. From the social point of view, the work uses evolution as a basis for questioning the existence of races in the human species, bringing to discussion the issue of diversity. The detection of considerable flaws in the teaching of evolution in the work suggests that studies that develop analysis of similar teaching materials should be carried out in order to obtain an overview of the of teaching quality of evolution in the country.