The teaching of biodiversity: trends and challenges in pedagogical experiences

Abstract

Nowadays, it is recognized that education plays a fundamental role in training citizens aware of biodiversity and its conservation issues. Biodiversity, as an integrating and polysemic concept, raises challenges for its approach in the classroom by teachers and researchers. This paper aimed to characterize and reflect on the trends and challenges of biodiversity teaching in the Brazilian context, identifying approaches given to the concept, methodological approach, didactic resources and difficulties pointed out both in research and reports of pedagogical experiences where teaching this concept was explicitly addressed to school’s audience. Twenty research papers about experiences developed at different educational levels were analyzed. It was found that the scope of biological-ecological explanation is privileged on sociocultural elements of the concept. Active methodologies related to the approach of problems of local biodiversity, project construction and school research are the pedagogical approaches that guide these practices. The main resources used correspond to the natural resources and the context, contemporary and dynamic. Teaching the concept still raises challenges about its place in the curriculum, the textbook, and teacher’s training processes. This paper aimed to characterize and reflect on the trends and challenges of biodiversity teaching in the Brazilian context, identifying approaches given to the concept, methodological approach, didactic resources and difficulties pointed out both in research and reports of pedagogical experiences where teaching this concept was explicitly addressed to school’s audience. Twenty research papers about experiences developed at different educational levels were analyzed. It was found that the scope of biological-ecological explanation is privileged on sociocultural elements of the concept. Active methodologies related to the approach of problems of local biodiversity, project construction and school research are the pedagogical approaches that guide these practices. The main resources used correspond to the natural resources and the context, contemporary and dynamic. Teaching the concept still raises challenges about its place in the curriculum, the textbook, and teacher’s training processes.

Keywords

• material didáctico
• medios de enseñanza
• método de enseñanza