Cegueira botânica: uma abordagem prática em um ambiente não formal

Abstract

The present work aims to describe my experience during the supervised internship in non-formal environments held at the Arboretum of the Federal University of Alagoas and the importance of this environment as a non-formal space to help reduce botanical blindness. The supervised internship is a crucial element for learning the teaching profession and building a professional identity, as it is primarily responsible for connecting theory with teaching practice. The teaching internship can be developed in formal and non-formal teaching spaces and, the latter offer opportunities for professional advancement and broadening the vision of what teaching is, helping to consolidate the idea that the place of internship and the place of teaching do not need to be necessarily a formal classroom. The internship at the Arboretum took place during the 2022.1 semester and involved maintaining the physical space, hosting kindergarten and high school classes, and building a script to assist in the future use of the Arboretum. From the experience in this non-formal space, it was possible to understand the importance of the supervised internship in my training as a future teacher, observing some difficulties such as the apparent lack of interest of the students in the subjects covered during the visit and the short visitation time that implied adaptability to the script. The experience also provided a greater understanding of the importance of the Arboretum-UFAL, not only as a space for the protection of native species of the Brazilian Atlantic Forest, but as a multiple teaching space, especially Botany, enabling a greater approximation between interns, teachers and students with this subject considered difficult and sometimes uninteresting. Therefore, the Arboretum represents an indispensable place for teaching construction within the perspective of a non-formal space and as a multiple tool to deal with diverse subjects such as resources and environmental impacts and, mainly, for teaching Botany, having great potential to help in the reduction of botanical blindness.