The origin of life: an analysis of the nature of science in an YouTube educational video

Abstract

This article aims to analyze what are the views on the nature of Science and the construction of scientific knowledge are present in an educational video about the Origin of Life, in a channel of the educational video platform YouTube Edu, constituting a clipping of a PhD research in progress. Given the exponential increase in the use of video lessons by high school students, it is important to understand how the circulation and use of these educational products occurs. The literature review pointed to an absence of studies on audiovisual channels that had as their reference the origin of life theme or that investigated how scientific controversies circulate in these video channels. The work uses as theoretical reference the epistemology of Thomas Samuel Kuhn (2017). We made a cut of the first sixteen minutes of the video lesson Origin of Life (ORIGEM, 2012), posted on the Total Biology Channel, by Professor Jubilut and proceeded to decoup (deconstruction) the video. Decoupage corresponds to a decomposition of the video into its constitutive elements, so that the “deconstruction of the film is equivalent to the description.” (VANOYE; GOLIOT-LÉTÉ, 2012, p. 14). The results of the analysis show that the video lecture treats the subject very similar to that found in the biology textbooks. The teacher makes many statements, leaving no room for reflection, to think other hypotheses, reducing the work of Science and scientists. Video lesson analysis points out some problems about the work of scientists and the nature of Science. We could conclude that there is a predominance of the inductivist empirical conception in the analyzed video, which agrees with other research Works that analyzed the conceptions of Science teachers (GIL- PÉREZ et al.2001; SCHEID et al., 2007). These questions can have a negative impact on science education, especially regarding the most controversial, controversial topics.

Keywords

• canais de vídeo
• natureza da ciência
• história da ciência
• ensino de ciências