RESUMO: Tendo como referência o entendimento de que o currículo é resultado de um processo constituído de conflitos e disputas entre diferentes tradições e concepções sociais, é analisado o ensino de astronomia no Brasil, a partir dos 18 programas do Colégio Pedro II, relativos às reformas de 1841 a 1951. Inicialmente identificada na disciplina Cosmographia, a astronomia está ausente dos currículos em alguns perío-dos (1856/58 e 1951) e retorna, outras vezes, incorporada em disciplinas como Geografia e/ou Física (por ex.1858 e 1931). Essa não linearidade na evolução temporal do currículo também é observada na permanência de temas como estações do ano ou eclipses, em todas as reformas e na ausên-cia descontínua de conteúdos como métodos de observação dos astros ou caracterização do Sol em algumas delas. Palavras-chave: Ensino de Astronomia; Currículo, Reforma Educacional. THE TEACHING OF ASTRONOMY IN BRAZIL -1850 TO 1951 -A VIEW FROM PEDRO II SCHOOL ABSTRACT:The teaching of Astronomy in Brazil is analyzed in the 18 programs of the Pedro II School, relative to the 1841 to 1951 reforms, based on the understanding that the curriculum is the result of a process made up of conflicts and disputes between different traditions and social conceptions. The Astronomy was first identified in the Cosmography subject, although it is absent from the curricula in some periods (1856/58 and 1951) and returns, at other times, included in subjects like Geography and/or Physics (e.g. 1858 and 1931). The non-linearity of the temporal evolution in the curriculum is also observed in the maintenance of subjects such as seasons or eclipses in all the reforms and in the disconnected absence of subject matter like the methods for the star observation or the characterization of the Sun in some of them.

This work, together with two others in the areas of biology and chemistry, has the objective of verifying the approximation between teaching contents in the natural sciences, specifically physics, of grade school and high school textbooks and reference science. Representing reference science, textbooks from baccalaureate and licentiate degrees in physics at the University of São Paulo were used. It is also possible using this proposal to evaluate the teaching content of science texts as a function of their distance from the contents of reference science resulting from didactic transposition. Some central concepts of physics were selected for analysis, as well as general principles and the concepts of energy, force and field, common to both elementary and high school teaching: weight and mass, heat and temperature; load.These concepts were analyzed in six collections of grade school science teaching materials (two from primary series and four from junior high school materials). These contents were compared with the approach developed in reference science texts to verify the conceptual accuracy in the perspective of approximation between school and scientific knowledge.Preliminary results indicated that the texts used at the grade school and junior high school levels approach the contents from a perspective with the greatest number of distances from reference physics, reinforced by today's laxity. Because the majority of primary and secondary school teachers are not specifically trained in sciences, they have difficulty identifying these aspects. In high school texts, initial results showed a greater approximation with reference physics books and their characteristic rigor. However, when these results are compared with the research presented in articles on the teaching of physics, even guaranteeing this approximation, there are still problems in the teaching and learning process that should be investigated, like the development of professors in the sciences.

With this work we compared the ways to understand Electricity among high school students that had Electricity course with teaching proposals from GREF and Ramalho. Initially we searched for researches about students spontaneous concepts in electric current, electric resistance, energy and electricity intending to intending to arrange the existing models about these concepts, and using them to analyse how was the knowledge of the students after they had finished one of the courses from the teaching proposals. Using a typical instrument from this kind of research, with a great portion of students from Ramalho's proposal, we obtained almost the same results that we had found at the initials researches. Although, among the students from GREF's proposal, the answers showed a different formation with a certain amplification in their point of view about Electricity. These differences are: in the correct apply of the classic current model to explain electric resistive phenomenon; in recognising the great utilisation of Electricity and, in spite of harmful effects from electric phenomenon, the students usually recognise them. Considering our thoughts about Education, Physics and teaching and learning processes, we looked for to comprise these results analysing the attributes elements from which proposal and, even if the two proposals intend to teach Electricity, we could confirm that they are very different from each other. The principal educational objective from Ramalho's proposal is in order to make the student pass in the university exam; to reach this, it develops the physics contents in a linear way, and in fragments that uses only the formal language. In this proposal, the student doesn't have space to participate actively in the learning process. And, the principal educational objective for GREF's proposal is give students abilities to comprise the diary things using Physics knowledge which is developed as a structure having the energy concept guiding the whole and, this proposal still introduces explaining models to construct images about the objects which are being analysing. And, in this course, the student participates from the very beginning, including when he helps to make the plan.