Rumo a uma Natureza da Biologia: estado da questão na pesquisa brasileira sobre aspectos da natureza da ciência (NdC) e sua abordagem no ensino de Biologia.

Abstract

In our doctoral thesis, we aimed to understand the state of the art (SoA) of Brazilian academic production on the Nature of Science (NOS) in Biology Education, analyzing 103 documents (45 dissertations, 15 theses, and 43 articles) published between 1982 and 2021, with an irregular distribution over this period, which allowed the identification of three historical periods: (1) Initiation/Exploration (1980s-1990s), marked by pioneering studies such as Fracalanza (1982); (2) Expansion (2000s), influenced by the Consensus View (CV) of authors like Lederman (1992), focusing on diagnosing naive conceptions of students and teachers; and (3) Consolidation (post-2011), characterized by quantitative growth (61.7% of dissertations/theses and 81.4% of articles) and qualitative improvement, with 83.7% of articles published in high-impact journals (Qualis A1-A4). The results showed that 37.8% of the studies focused on Curricula and Material Resources (CMR), revealing simplistic representations of science in teaching materials but without advancing to proposals that integrate specific aspects of Biology. 25.2% focused on Student Ideas (SI), uncovering conceptions such as neutrality and linearity of knowledge, with good pedagogical interventions in Higher and Secondary Education classes but neglecting the early years of Elementary Education. Methodologically, 91.3% of the works were empirical, with a predominance of descriptive analyses (53.4%), while theoretical essays (5.8%) and experience reports (2.9%) were scarce, indicating a lack of reflections on the uniqueness of Biology. The analysis identified the hegemony of the Consensus View (CV) (75.2%), which, although useful for diagnostics, proved limited in exploring the specificities of Biology, such as methodological plurality or historical contextualization. Curriculum models such as the Family Resemblance Approach (FRA/RFN) (2.9%) and the Comprehensive View (8.6%) are underrepresented in our corpus. Thus, we consider that, although Brazilian research has advanced in critical diagnostics, it lacks proposals that articulate NOS to the epistemological specificities of Biology. To overcome these gaps, we point to the need to: 1. integrate philosophical debates in Biology with aspects of NOS in the pursuit of establishing a Nature of Biology; 2. invest in curriculum models that encompass not only consensual aspects of NOS but also those that indicate the singularities of the sciences; and 3. expand the attention of the Biology education research community to levels and modalities of education that are still neglected, ensuring that science education dialogues with the challenges of a socioenvironmentally crisis-ridden world in the context of diverse educational realities.