Bioseguridad Aplicado a La Cosmetologia

THE ROLE OF EVERYDAY AND FORMAL LANGUAGE IN HIGH SCHOOL PHYSICS EDUCATION AND REPRESENTATIONS IN SCIENTIFIC TEXTS
Maria José P. M. de Almeida* email:mjpma@obelix.unicamp.br *State University of Campinas, Cx.P.6120 Cidade Universitária Barão Geraldo Campinas CEP: 13083-970 SP Brazil ABSTRACT
In this presentation we make a synthesis of two studies: everyday and mathematic languages are discussedin relation to the teaching of physics in high school education and the functioning - in physics itself – of the two languages from the point of view of a scientist. We have developed our ideas in the direction of showing that, besides the normal work with everyday and mathematic languages, which should occur continuously, the student will be able to better understand the requirements ofscientific production if she/he has access to scientists’ visions about the roles of the two languages in this production. In these studies the main theoretical ideas were found in French Discourse Analysis according to M. Pêcheux and E. Orlandi with the notion of ambiguity and different effects of senses in meaning production, with the basis of the idea of representation according to E. Ferreiro, and alsoG. Bachelard contributed to our reflections about the functioning of the two languages in high school education with his discutions about the epistemological obstacle idea and involving the continuity and rupture processes. Support: CNPq

INTRODUCTION The perspective in which students learn science through reading or writing is not the only thing that has been dealt with in the investigationsabout language in this area. Other aspects have also been approached. In the Science and Teaching Group for study and research at the State University of Campinas, Brazil we have been working on a program which shows the necessity of radical transformations in the high school curriculums and also courses for the preparation of teachers. In conceiving this, we admit that the investigation oflanguage in the teaching of science, specifically that of physics, has an important role in this transformation. One of the works included in this program is the study of the mediation of texts and the representation of physics teachers in education, Almeida [1]. It suggests school activities using texts different from those in the textbooks and explaining the functioning of these activities. Thequestion of functioning of reading texts relative to the science of physics is approached in other studies by the same research group, such [2], [3], [4], and [5]. The representations of the teacher related to the attempts in using alternative texts in physics classes are studied in the article by [6]. Informal conversation and answers to partially structured interview questions given by high schoolteachers show us how great is the expectation of these teachers that their students “know mathematics”. They consider this knowledge to be a prerequisite so that students can solve problems (exercises) which, as we know, take up most of the class time. These exercises are also the main basis, sometimes the only one, for grades. At the same time we have seen that teachers have high expectations fortheir students to “understand" physics”, which many times is expressed by them as “to know concepts”. Finally, in a manner not so clear in conversations with teachers, we have found more than once a certain belief in the hierarchy of understanding concepts and mathematics knowledge by students in specific physics themes. Or rather,

will be prepared to do the exercises. If this does not happen willit be due to the lack of “mathematic prerequisites”, meaning, not knowing how to work with algebra equations which should already have been “learnt” in a mathematics class. On the other hand, it is the solving of exercises that takes up the greater part of physics classes. This happens even when it appears that the teacher only gives value to the abilities that this activity requires in terms...