Pensando a epistemologia de Gaston Bachelard a partir de práticas investigativas no ensino de ciências

Abstract

To Bachelard (2005) the scientific spirit develops through ruptures with common sense and with the preconceptions of spontaneous thinking. This premise underlies the idea that non-scientific knowledge is classified as intuitive and devoid of the problematic character of science. In the understanding of Bachelard (2005), the science based on this clear model becomes pernicious for the development of the scientific spirit, this is because being an evident science it immobilizes the evolution of knowledge. We believe that bringing this reflection on Bachelard’s (2005), for the didactic scope can contribute to practices that teach students to perceive science in a problematic way, reflective, controversial, constructive, and mainly guided by the rectifying dynamics of knowledge, which means that knowledge is not constituted by a sum of ideas, but by the rupture of theories and laws. To reflect on Bachelard's thinking in teaching practice, we bring as a starting point the teaching of science by investigation, this is because this teaching approach is not limited to manipulating objects involved in science activities. It is a mark of this approach to encourage studentsto develop actions that in the words of Bachelard (2005, p. 24) is designated as “[…] dialetizar todas as variáveis experimentais, oferecer enfim à razão razões para evoluir.”. These actions in science teaching by investigation can be classified as: design and test hypotheses, interpretation, recording and comparison of data, as well as debates, justifications, arguments, and explanations of ideas. Given these questions, we emphasize that the general objective of this study is to reflect on the epistemology of Gaston Bachelard and its possible contributions to the teaching of science, from the teaching of science by investigation. In this sense, we are carrying out qualitative bibliographic research with the intention of answering the following research problem: from the teaching of sciences through investigation, how is it possible to think about didactic practices that are close to Bachelard's epistemology? As a methodological path we are carrying out readings in primary and secondary research sources of the works of Gaston Bachelard, as well as readings on inquiry-based science teaching. From this action, we have been resorting to Bardin's (2011) categorical analysis, as a way of treating and organizing data that demonstrate possible approximations and distances from Bachelard’s thinking and the teaching of science by investigation. Based on the elements that emerged from the categories, we are doing content analysis, which has allowed us to identify that there are indications pointing to the following question: science teaching by investigation has some characteristics that, in the didactic context, can bring Bachelard's postulates closer to science teaching practices. This approximation can be verified from the analysis of categories that point to elements that are related between the two objects of study treated here, some of them being: the problem as a driving force in the construction of knowledge; error as a singular issue to produce scientific knowledge; intellectual authority as a founding element for the development of authentic science.