Development of critical thinking skills of undergraduate students of Pedagogy from a socio-scientific issue about the proliferation of scorpions in Amargosa, Bahia

Abstract

Considering the need to question ideas or representations that tend to hide views about the different ways in which social relations can be produced, the aim of this article is to analyze the contributions of using a Socio-Scientific Issue (SSI) from the perspective of Science, Technology, Society and Environment (STSE) Education and with Freirian grounds, on the proliferation of scorpions, for the development of critical thinking of teachers in training. For this, we evaluated a didactic sequence elaborated by a group of undergraduates in Pedagogy. We consider that the group partially reached a critical thinking on the subject, by building relationships between scorpion proliferation, sanitation, deforestation and ecological imbalance, discussing the SSI in a broader perspective than just from a S&T point of view. We consider that the group partially constructed critical reflections on the subject, since other problematizations could be carried out regarding the role of S&T and the topic at stake. Therefore, we recommend further inves­tigations into the use of SSI in teacher’s training in the early years, based on STSE education and Freirean pedagogy, in order to foster a more solid training towards teachers with skills to implement these educational approaches in their pedagogical practices.