Abordagem da genética mendeliana em livros didáticos de Biologia do ensino médio distribuídos pelo Programa Nacional do Livro Didático (PNLD) - 2018

Abstract

The History of Mendelian genetics can be used as a tool to assist in the teaching-learning process, promoting reflections on scientific contextualization. In current textbooks, we find the presentation of the story of Johann Gregor Mendel as an essential part of the content. Also known as the "father of genetics", Mendel is often portrayed as a lonely monk, living in an isolated monastery, and fascinated by a topic that is now widely discussed: the answer to the mechanism of heredity. Although its history is often presented in a simplified and repetitive way in most textbooks, it is important to point out that it has a rich and complex history behind it. Due to the great influence of textbooks in biology teaching, especially in regions where there are few resources available for teachers and students, classes end up being based exclusively on the content present in this material. It is crucial to investigate how the history of this scientist is approached, therefore, in this work we analyzed five high school biology textbooks distributed in the Bahian reconcavo by the PNLD of 2018, with the objective of analyzing the approach of contents related to Mendelian Genetics in its context. To develop the methodology of the work, bibliographical research was carried out and for investigation, content analysis was used, which according to Bardin (2016) isdivided into three stages: choice of documents to be analyzed, formulation of hypotheses or objectives and the elaboration of indicators that supported the final interpretation. We used the criteria produced by Laurinda Leite (2002) and Paulo Vidal (2009) to analyze the works, which were acquired in digital format. In all, 1782 pages of the teacher's manual were read and the information found was grouped into context units and recording units. Analyzing several works, we noticed that many of them inadequately present Johann Gregor Mendel, portraying him as an exceptionally skilled or extraordinary being, which reinforces the view that scientists are different from ordinary people. focuses on content related to his life and the existing evolution before and during Mendel's story. His story is told in a very limited way and in this case, the only work to offer a part of this character's life was the LD2 material. We still find contextual errors in the work LD1, placing the scientist as the “father of genetics”, and mistakes also in the material LD5, citing the principle of heredity and the discovery of heredity à la Mendelian. We then conclude that there are gaps and that issues related to Mendelian genetics should be better explored and revised, so that educators obtain materials that address the understanding of scientific knowledge without being restricted to just ideas, concepts or participation of specific individuals.