Work situations and science teaching: meanings attributed by students of Professional and Technological Education
The research investigates the meanings attributed by students of higher technological education about work situations and their relationship with the conceptual aspects of science during the teaching and learning process. It is justified by the fact that companies and professionals use methods and technological processes that facilitate the execution of work, but limit the human development capacity of the vast majority of workers. Educational policies corroborate the regulation of these practices, as well as institutions belonging to the context of Professional and Technological Education (EPT) support such methods supported by official documents. On the other hand, the fourth Industrial Revolution and the extinction of many operational professions implies the need to review such policies and practices. The main theoretical contribution of the study is the conceptions of the theory of human activity, proposed by Leontiev, which conceptualizes the processes of development of the human psyche in the context of work. Action-research is adopted as a methodological procedure, conceived by the intervention and the close relationship between the action and the resolution of a problem by involving the researcher and participants, in order to follow the movement of twenty-two students, from a public college, located in the city of São Paulo, in a refrigeration, ventilation and air conditioning course. The research planning takes place through a formative experiment organized by situations that trigger meaning and learning, based on practical tasks intentionally designed to generate discussions and involve conceptual aspects of science, in the area of Physics, Mathematics and professional work. The analysis is based on a triangulation of the data, which are collected and analyzed through semi-structured and unstructured interviews, questionnaires and written production, in addition to the researcher's direct observations. As a preliminary result, evidence of attribution of meanings through alienation, contradiction and awareness was obtained. The meaning attributed by alienation comes from the relationship between the main motive linked to the objective reality of the work and its actions, which are stimulated by tacit knowledge, acquired through experience, by the appearance of the phenomenon, by the immediate solutions under instruction, by the technology itself, by imposition for the time of belonging in the company, for the profit or financial advantage, among other reasons supplementary to the main one. It is also preliminarily concluded that there is an impasse between what is idealized about the development of the worker and what the companies and professionals themselves disseminate in their professional work practices.