Critical thinking in teacher education: contributions of the PIBID Chemistry program from the perspective of graduates teaching in basic education

Abstract

This study analyzes how the PIBID Chemistry program at the State University of Pará has contributed to the teacher training and current professional practice of graduates working in Basic Education, using critical thinking as its theoretical framework. A qualitative, descriptive study was conducted with 16 graduates currently teaching in Basic Education. Their narratives, collected through an online questionnaire, were compiled into a corpus and subjected to lexical analysis in IRaMuTeQ, using a word cloud, correspondence factor analysis, and similarity analysis. In the accounts, informed decision-making emerges when participants justify methodological choices and describe adjustments to teaching interventions in response to classroom feedback. Sensitivity to context is reflected in their efforts to understand school realities and adapt activities to the actual conditions of the classroom. Reflection and self-evaluation appear in passages where graduates revisit lesson plans, acknowledge limitations in their own practice, and identify learning experiences associated with PIBID participation. Limitations, however, remain—particularly difficulties in linking pedagogical decisions more explicitly to evidence of student learning and in stating, in the narratives, elements specific to chemical knowledge and its teaching. Overall, the study advances research in Chemistry Education by highlighting both the potential and the constraints of PIBID (Institutional Scholarship Program for Teaching Initiation) in fostering critical thinking during the initial training of Chemistry teachers.