O estágio no Parque Zoobotânico Orquidário de Santos: possibilidades formativas em educação ambiental a futuros professores de biologia

Abstract

In the face of current environmental problems studies consider the necessity of becoming stronger in environmental education in schools of Basic Education. Therefore research investigated the formative potential of a training toward the environmental education performed at the Environmental Education Unit of the Zoo botanical Park Orquidário de Santos. The training was analyzed in the light of Cultural-Historical Theory, considering the dialectical approach of Vigotski for the understanding of the phenomenon in its process. Other theory references were brought that related the investigated phenomenon: environmental education, non-formal education and teacher training. The participant observation was the indicated technique for the study, for it permitted the presence of the researcher following the trainee during the process. Audio and video recordings, interviews, photographic registers and field notebooks were used as instruments for obtaining the narratives and the important moments that happened during the training. The research subjects are the students of the degree course in biological science that are trainees as scholarship students from a program of the city hall of Santos, SP, during the period of one to two years, oriented and supervised by the manager of the Environmental Education Unit. The analysis revealed that the training enabled learning not only environmental themes as well as scientific content of the natural sciences, besides the learning of future teachers. We see the potential of this stage for the development of participants. Students became more autonomous and allowed critical reflection. It enhanced the production of knowledge in different ways, bringing students closer to ways of doing research and ways of doing science. These results indicate that the realization of a training in the models realized at the UEA -Orquidário can consist in an important strategy for the graduation of the degree students for the development of the environmental education with their future students of basic education.