CONSTRUCTIVISM APPLIED TO THE DISCIPLINE: A¨ DVANCED EDUCATION ON BIOCHEMISTRY

Resumo

Constructivism employs  models  that include  epistemological knowledge  and  strategies to  stimulate and motivate students so that they need to construct their own understanding of any subjetc  concept. Under  this  process,  the  primary  role of teaching  is not  to lecture,  explain,  or otherwise  attempt to´transferk´nowledge, but to create.  This principle was used in the Biochemistry Master Science Program of the  Universidade  Federal  de Pernambuco.  The  model applied  was divided  into  four phases:  (1) acquaintance of the student previous knowledge (using a pre-test); (2) presentation of the knowledge using a Science Teaching  CD-Rom;  (3) submission  of the  learned  content by the  student to teacher critical  analyis  and  (4)  application of Interactionism (teacher/student/contents).   Each  phase  was individually  evaluated.  In the  first phase,  the  average  of correct  answers  of the  group  (13 students) was 64%, whereas  the  second and  third  phases  presented  61% and  53%, respectively.   These  results reveal  a great  congnitive  unbalance  into  the  group.   They  also showed that the  previous  ideas and hypothesis  of the  students were in conflict  with  the  scientific  concepts.   After  teacher intervention (phase  four)  the  group  presented  an increase  in the knowledge (86% of correct  answers).   Based  on these  results  one can conclude  that this  four-phase  model applied  and  based  on Constructivism  for acquiring  knowledge can be useful in Biochemistry  teaching.