Institutional integration: analysis of a sociological model for perseverance in teacher education programs in Natural Sciences

Abstract

Motivated by the ongoing increasing concern about the so-called "teacher shortage" in Brazil, we decided to focus this work on the most recent research trends to investigate the phenomena of dropout and persistence in undergraduate courses in the natural sciences at Brazilian higher education institutions. Naturally, dropout in science education has motivated numerous articles over the years. Therefore, in order to discuss the topic in some depth, we opted for a delimitation consisting of analyzing the results of investigations published in the last five years in Qualis A1 journals, and which oriented their research from a social perspective, according to the definitions we discuss throughout the paper. We guided our discussions in stages referring to the phases of academic development proposed in the framework adopted, which are admission, integration, and decision. Among the results discussed are proposals for changes in the curriculum, bringing didactic subjects forward to the initial semesters of the courses, and active teaching methodologies, such as inquiry-based learning which would allow greater interaction between peers and, consequently, possible mitigation of the consequences of the disparity in initial undergraduate education.