Panorama and Perspectives of the Teaching of Radiation and Radioactivity at the High School Level

Abstract

This paper presents a perspective of how the radiation and radioactivity themes have been discussed at the high school level in several locations around the world. In this context, scientific journals, academic journals, theses, dissertations, and media materials were analyzed. Recent research has shown that the concern with the discussion about radiation and radioactivity in basic education is a current and global issue. The discussion on the radiation and radioactivity themes in different contexts in this paper was presented in four parts: (i) the representations used to deal with the themes; (ii) how the high school curriculum deals with the topic; (iii) the common alternative conceptions; and (iv) intervention proposals to address the issues. Based on a literature review, in order to collaborate in the teaching of radiation and radioactivity topics, the main objective of this work is to understand the current scenario on these topics, identify some challenges to understand them and present possible interventions to overcome them.

Keywords

• alternative conceptions
• high school
• literature review
• radiation
• radioactivity