Reflections about the process of continuing education proposed by a specialization course in Education in Science and Technology

Abstract

In this work, we present a proposed course of specialization in the modality “Lato sensu" which was implemented at the Fundação Universidade Federal do Pampa, in 2008. The specialization course has been directed toward the continuing education of teachers working in Science Education and Technology. We present reflections on the progress of the course and then on the effective contributions produced in the teaching activities of its graduates. We used two moments of data collection: for the first the students answered questionnaires during the course, at the end of each module, and for the second they responded to a questionnaire via the Internet, six months after the period of defense of the work completed. It was possible to evaluate the type of instruction offered by the course, the barriers faced by students during the same and also their expectations regarding their future in the teaching career. In general, the results point to the success of the proposal implemented in pursuit of continuing education for practicing teachers. They indicate a high degree of satisfaction on the part of the course graduates. Many of them are in a phase of full reflection and some are already effectively changing their daily classroom teaching practices. It was possible to perceive, from various angles, that the course could be improved, especially with regard to a greater emphasis on proposals to utilize experiments in the teaching of physics and chemistry.