Vol. 4 No. 5 (2021): Special Edition: Research in Postgraduate Education in Science Teaching

In this special edition of the Insignare Scientia Journal (RIS), we present the dossier “Research in Postgraduate Education in Science Teaching” with eighteen articles, in which we seek to strengthen the commitment to the field through discussions on various empirical and theoretical research universes. Education, like other segments of society, has been affected by the social, economic, political, and cultural changes brought about by an unexpected context that affected all continents in 2020 and 2021. In the search to reflect on these changes and dialogue with the different theoretical and methodological perspectives associated with the field of Science Education, we present a set of texts carefully prepared by a group of researchers who are part of a research network in this area in Latin America. The texts, in addition to being by authors from national and international institutions, are the result of research developed by this group and seek to contribute to instigating reflections on an educational scenario that is being shaped in multiple aspects.

This introduction locates that the dossier is composed of collectives of researchers who share the context of the Red Internacional de Investigación en Enseñanza de las Ciencias (RIEC) and conduct studies within the scope of postgraduate studies in Latin American countries. There are fourteen texts by researchers affiliated with Brazilian institutions and four from programs of international institutions, both linked to RIEC, which we now present in continuation.

The first article presents an account of a didactic strategy carried out in the Energy and Environment course, which is part of the Postgraduate Program in Science and Mathematics Teaching (PPGECM) at the Universidade de Passo Fundo (UPF), RS. In the text, the authors describe the process of building a didactic tool called lapbook, by eight master's students with pedagogical training in the fields of Biology, Physics, Mathematics, and Chemistry.

Next, we have an article signed by researchers from the Universidad Nacional del Comahue (UNComa), Argentina. The bibliographic text presents an educational research on seed germination, based on a review of articles published in indexed open-access journals.

The third article contains another bibliographic research, of a theoretical nature carried out through a review of dissertations and theses, which aimed to map what has been researched about the knowledge produced and mobilized by Biology teachers, in the context of the training of these professionals.

A theoretical essay makes up the fourth article, which aims to discuss the importance of postgraduate studies for the training of teachers capable of acting professionally in the current scenario, contributing to the confrontation and transformation of reality.

In the fifth article, the researchers conduct a study in two postgraduate programs in Brazil and state that, even though they are “young,” the contexts have a consolidated identity in terms of theoretical frameworks and disciplinary/interdisciplinary profile. At the same time, the authors point out the existence of bottlenecks in the training of postgraduates, as some important theoretical perspectives for science education in Brazil are absent.

The sixth article analyzes the National High School Curriculum Parameters (PCNs) and the National Common Curricular Base (BNCC), with specific attention to the area of Natural Sciences and their Technologies, investigating, through a documentary bibliographic research, the continuities or ruptures, similarities or differences of the competencies prescribed in each of them.

In the seventh article, the authors present in the form of an essay bibliographic aspects that can establish a dialogue between scientific literacy and philosophical logic. Based on the reflections resulting from the study, they consider that argumentative logic can contribute to the process of scientific literacy in young people and children, helping to develop critical and reflective thinking in the face of the pseudoscientific tricks so widespread in contemporary times.

The eighth article presents discussions on the importance of developing learning objects in the Professional Master's course that is part of the Postgraduate Program in Scientific and Technological Teaching (PPGEnCT) at the Universidade Regional Integrada do Alto Uruguai e das Missões (URI), Santo Ângelo, RS. In the text, the authors aim to report the development of a software teaching prototype to be used in the electrical circuits curriculum component.

The ninth article presents part of a professional master's dissertation study that sought to analyze the questions of the Natural Sciences and their Technologies exam, from the National High School Exam (ENEM), in the period 2015-2019. The study analyzed issues related to Brazilian biomes in the Biology exam, noting that, in the analyzed period, knowledge about Ecology was frequent in the exams, while those related to Brazilian biomes were practically nonexistent.

Next, we have the tenth article that aimed to investigate the understanding of problems presented in certain situations, by Basic Education students who participated in a Junior Scientific Initiation project for a period of six months.

In the eleventh article, researchers from the Universidad Pedagógica Nacional (UNP), Colombia, present the progress of an investigation that characterized the environmentalized content in a postgraduate course in Chemistry teaching, determining its levels of environmentalization. According to the authors, understanding this environmentalization remains a challenge for teaching due to the lack of teacher training and commitment to institutional and national policies.

The twelfth article presents the result of an investigation carried out in the Postgraduate Program in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (PPGSTEM) at the Universidade Estadual do Rio Grande do Sul (UEGRS), with the aim of highlighting the path taken by a research group in the conception, creation, and management of a postgraduate course.

The Postgraduate Program in Teaching Exact Sciences (PPGECE) at the Universidade do Vale do Taquari (Univates) located in Lajeado, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil is presented in the thirteenth article. To properly understand how this group conducts the construction of scientific knowledge, the program is presented with its research lines and research groups, highlighting the synthetic description of three doctoral theses that were developed by the group.

The fourteenth article presents the results of a study conducted on the application of the praxeological method in the professional training process. 60 professionals participated in the Pedagogical Praxeology Seminar: Diagnostic Preparation of Praxeology, carried out by the Corporación Universitaria Minuto de Dios (UNIMINUTO), Bogotá, Colombia.

Next, we have the fifteenth article that describes and reflects, in a four-handed autobiographical text, on the emergence and performance of a research group in Rio Grande do Sul, focusing on public curriculum policies, teacher training, and external evaluations.

The objective of the sixteenth article was to identify the signs of curriculum development and the constitution of teacher knowledge, in environmental education and health education, based on the reading and analysis of dissertations and theses from the Postgraduate Program in Education in Sciences (PPGEC), at the Universidade Regional Noroeste do Estado do Rio Grande do Sul (Unijuí).

In the seventeenth article, the authors seek to design a curricular proposal from a strategic approach, aiming to strengthen the development and consolidation of the main investigative competencies, through the articulation of the methodological axis in the courses of Methodology and Seminar of Intervention Projects in Education and Final Postgraduate Work I and II of the Master's in Education at the Adventist University of Chile.

Finally, we have the eighteenth article in which the authors discuss understandings about the area of Natural Sciences and their Technologies (CNT) in the document of the Gaúcho Curricular Framework (RCG), focusing on the proposal of formative itineraries for the New High School. The study is part of a master's study conducted in conjunction with the Postgraduate Program in Science Teaching (PPGEC) at the Universidade Federal da Fronteira Sul (UFFS), Cerro Largo.

We want to thank the editors of RIS who provided the space for sharing the texts and, in the endeavor to explore Latin American frontiers and instigate debates about the possible directions of Science Education, we invite you to read the texts seeking to bring you closer to the RIEC collective. Thus, we present to the interested community, in broadening understandings about Science Education within the scope of RIEC, a synthesis of our productions, which can be at the same time a crowning of the committed work of all.

Cleci Werner da Rosa

Diana Lineth Parga Lozano

Fabiane de Andrade Leite