The Teaching of Paleontology in the early years: exploring the children's imaginary through images

Abstract

Paleontology plays an important role in the production and dissemination of knowledge. It helps us understand complex natural processes and contributes to the development of critical and active citizens in society. The objective of this article is to evaluate the conceptions of elementary school students by viewing images focused on the theme of paleontology. The adopted methodology was qualitative and exploratory, carried out with 60 students in the third and fourth grades. For data collection, individual interviews were conducted through photo-elicitation. The results were subjected to content analysis. The results show that children associate paleontology with the discovery and excavation of fossils. They lack understanding of the fossilization process. Their conceptions are often reductionist or even mistaken on the subject. For example, they may believe that all dinosaurs became extinct at the same time, or that fossils are just old bones. Additionally, it was observed that paleontology education is absent from the classroom. The students had difficulty associating the images with paleontology, indicating a strong tendency to associate paleontology only with dinosaurs.