Elizabeth Tunes

O professor e o ato de ensinar

A sala de aula e o espaco privilegiado de negociacoes e de producao de novos sentidos e significados a respeito, principalmente, dos diferentes conceitos escolares. Isso acontece em uma rede interativa complexa em que se tornam presentes e se atualizam a historia de vida, as experiencias e vivencias de professores e alunos, alem do proprio conhecimento formal. Do professor espera-se que conduza o seu grupo de alunos, buscando compreender e negociar os diferentes processos de significacao que envolvem as situacoes de aprendizagem que planejou. Tem sido comum identificar o professor nesse papel de mediador, atribuindo a ideia a abordagem historico-cultural. O objetivo deste texto e discutir a identificacao entre acao docente e mediacao, de modo a caracterizar aquilo a que corresponde, segundo nossa otica, o trabalho desenvolvido pelo professor, tendo como foco o conceito de zona proximal de desenvolvimento. As consideracoes encaminham-se para o entendimento de que os conteudos escolares somente estarao a servico do desenvolvimento dos alunos se forem operados na conjuntura dos seus processos de significacao, tendo em conta que a funcao primordial da educacao e a de nutrir possibilidades relacionais.

Vigotski e Leontiev: ressonâncias de um passado

O artigo trata do relacionamento entre Lev Semionovitch Vigotski e Aleksei Nikolaievitch Leontiev. Sabe-se que os dois trabalharam juntos ao longo dos anos 20 do seculo XIX e sao considerados fundadores da teoria historico-cultural da psicologia sovietica, juntamente com Aleksandr Romanovitch Luria. Inicialmente, as autoras trazem informacoes a respeito da biografia e trajetoria cientifica de L. S. Vigotski, fundamentando-as com fatos extraidos de diferentes fontes. O principal assunto abordado, o suposto rompimento ocorrido entre Vigotski e Leontiev, e examinado no artigo, escrito por descendentes de A. N. Leontiev, no qual sao publicadas cartas originais de Leontiev e Vigostski. Ao final, as autoras apresentam uma entrevista realizada com o neto de Leontiev, professor Dimitri Leontiev.

Desafios da escola atual: a educação pelo trabalho

This work aims at investigating and proposing strategies to improve the comprehension of Chemistry concepts by high school students. One of these strategies consists in workshops that emphasize the notion of work as a general educational principle, in the perspective of polytechnic education. Interviews (pre and post-workshops) were used to evaluate the results. In post-workshop interviews, a significant incorporation of scientific concepts was observed, as well as a considerable improvement in the interpretation of experiments.

The Handcrafting Activity of Goldsmiths and Conceptual Thinking

Contemporary society overvalues scientific knowledge. Being at the central axis of society, a place formerly occupied by the Church, modern science has the power to govern and set ideologically desired parameters to human life. It perpetuates the image of an ethically neutral science, in which all is explained and proved empirically. It also spreads the idea that science is able to guide people through the conflicts and tragedies of life, promoting their dependence on the canons that dictate their ways of living. One of the social institutions that perpetuate this ideology is the school, with the promise of preparing children and youth for life, making them critical citizens, adapted to social standards. It serves governmental programs and market logic, and it is regulated and protected by law. Under the yoke of the law, people are required to fulfill years of schooling, having as a goal the acquisition of certificates that work as a guarantee of the fulfillment of market requirements. In this chapter, we carry out a critical examination of the idea that the responsibility of offering students the basis of scientific thinking, or at least scientific initiation, belongs exclusively to the school. In order to do so, we initially examine the way schools transmit scientific knowledge by describing the characteristics and function of this process. By analysing goldsmithing activity, we then seek to show that daily human social life is full of other activities that allow thinking through scientific concepts. This analysis showed that this activity has numerous links between procedures, operations, concepts, and results of conceptual organization systems, and logically coordinated clusters of concepts, subordinated and supra-ordered.

Algumas informações biográficas sobre L. S. Vigotski: será que, algum dia, a névoa se dissipará?

Neste artigo discutem-se informacoes biograficas de L. S. Vigotski, extraidas de trabalhos de uma pesquisadora russa que investigouos arquivos da familia do autor. E traduzido um trecho de artigo da pesquisadora no qual ela transcreve anotacoes ineditas deVigotski, feitas em cadernetas e pedacos de papel. As informacoes referem-se a sua relacao com a doenca que o acometeu; apresenca forte de Hamlet nos periodos de crise e internacao; a sua relacao com a familia; ao compromisso com a Revolucao deOutubro; ao processo de elaboracao de sua teoria, destacando-se algumas indicacoes de suas preocupacoes com a questao judaica.

Atualidade de Vigotski

In this paper, we discuss the topicality of the cultural-historical theory developed by Lev Semionovitch Vygotsky approximatelybetween the end of the second decade and the third decade of the 20th century. We adopt a critical attitude towards theidea that scientific knowledge has an expiration date, and we seek to show that this idea emerges from the transformationof science into a commodity. As a counterpoint to this view, we argue that every device built by man presents somethingpermanent which transcends the mere functionality of things produced for consumption. In other words, we argue that allthat is singular, in a way, has permanence in the world.

Estudos sobre a teoria histórico-cultural e suas implicações educacionais

In this paper are outlined the theoretical foundations of a research program entitled “Studies on cultural-historical theoryand its implications for education”. The interpretative emphasis is anchored on the philosophical anthropology of MartinBuber, since there is convergence of ideas between him and Vygotsky, especially in the examination of issues in the field ofeducation. For both, man’s relationships to each other is the source of humanization of man; education is essentially dialogueand its mission is to promote relational possibilities. Studies and surveys conducted within the program are directed towardthe critical examination and interpretation of the cultural-historical theory. These studies also seek understand the mainformulations of the theory in its inaugural moment in the Soviet Union and its consequences for education in arts, sciencesand the humanities. A few abstracts of studies and researches conducted within the scope of the program are presented.