THE IMPORTANCE OF PRIOR KNOWLEDGE TO SITUATE AND ARTICULATE LEARNING PROCESSES IN A BIOLOGY CLASSROOM

Abstract

For the Science Education that takes place in our schools, mechanistic teaching, based on the transmission-reception-reproduction of knowledge, no longer fits. Instead, we understand the teaching-learning process through other theoretical-methodological conceptions that aggregate the conceptual and contextual dimensions of biological-scientific knowledge. We assume learning as a process of signification and, in this sense, as a social practice, as it occurs through the engagement of actors from their socio-historical contexts. To this end, prior knowledge is a relevant factor for the elaboration of new knowledge and for learning. In order for previous and new knowledge to relate, it is necessary for the teacher to promote interactive, creative and dialogical spaces, through specific disciplinary practices. In the interactive sequence analyzed, we recorded that previous knowledge is present and is mobilized to organize, relate, order or compare concepts in order to reconstruct new ecological meanings. We also perceive that the mechanisms of signification arise from the students' commitment to social and cultural activities mediated by the other and by language in a socio-interactionist perspective.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.56238/sevened2024.041-045