Thematic approaches: contributions to the quality of Chemistry school education

Abstract

Many documents and researches have defended the curriculum in thematic approaches as a fruitful possibility of improving the quality of education chemistry. In this sense, this research focused on the following research questions: What is fundamentally working with Themes? What possibilities of curricular reorganizations in thematic approaches are presented in the empirical material produced? Methodologically, we analyzed official documents that guide the Brazilian Basic Education, since Educational Reform of 1996, as well as books from the collection Educação em Química, published by UNIJUÍ, following the Discursive Textual Analysis. From this analytical process were produced two categories: Themes and Curricular Reorganizations. We sought to establish some relations between Brazil and Spain, due to the doctoral sandwich accomplished in the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (during 4 months), with the intention of sharing some Brazilian initiatives that seek to improve the signification of the school scientific concepts of area. The curricular organization in themes stands out for closer ties between theory and practice, contextualizing and integrating knowledge. It is important to take into account what constitutes a thematic approach, as well as the different processes by which the theme is chosen. Some of the curricular reorganizations identified and described, briefly, are as follows: Situations Study; Learning Units; Structuring Themes, Working with the Everyday; Science, Technology and Society; among others. Knowing a little more about such curricular reorganizations contributes to the production of new meanings and understandings, making them complementary, having in view what is understood that can be a good high school.