Abordagem Ciência-Tecnologia-Sociedade (CTS) na temática "Revolução industrial e a máquina a vapor: reflexos nas mudanças sociais": uma análise das compreensões de estudantes

Abstract

In this study, we analyze students' understanding of the relationships between scientific and technological development and their social implications (STS relationships) and of scientific concepts related to the study of gases and the operation of the steam engine. From this perspective, we planned and implemented a pedagogical intervention with a Science-Technology-Society (STS) approach, based on the theme “Industrial revolution and the steam engine: reflections on social changes”, for the study of gases emphasizing the relationships between the variables pressure, volume and temperature. We characterized the research as qualitative, of the pedagogical intervention type, with the participation of an average of 37 students from the 1st year of high school, aged around 15 years, from a reference school in high school in the state network of Pernambuco located in city of Recife, and we conducted four methodological stages, namely: planning of the pedagogical intervention; implementation of the pedagogical intervention; data collect; and data analysis. For data analysis, we considered as a priori categories: students' understandings about the relationships between industrial revolution, steam engine and society; students' understandings about STS relations in the context of the theme “Industrial revolution and the steam engine: reflections on social changes”; and students' understanding of chemical concepts related to the study of gases with emphasis on the relationships between pressure, volume and temperature variables and the operation of the steam engine. From the findings of this research, we can say that the students expressed understandings that they considered both negative and positive consequences of the industrial revolution for society. As for the relationships between scientific and technological development and its social implications, the students, together, presented three ways of understanding: scientific and technological innovations always have an impact on social wellbeing; such innovations do not have repercussions on social well-being, and scientific and technological innovations bring benefits and harm to social well-being. However, few understood, from a scientific point of view, the relationships between the variables pressure, volume and temperature and the functioning of the steam engine based on these relationships.