CONCEPTIONS OF TEACHERS IN TRAINING ON THE CONTEXTUALIZATION OF LOCAL ECOLOGICAL KNOWLEDGE AND SCIENTIFIC CONTENT IN CLASSROOM

Initial teacher training is the process of developing professional skills and abilities to act effectively in the education of citizens, which imposes pedagogical commitments to be assumed by universities, mainly related to the areas of biological sciences. This statement leads us to realize how it is necessary a professional construction that aims at teaching beyond the memorization of scientific concepts, thus idealizing a training that contemplates dialogues with the different cultures and existing forms of knowledge in order to build meaningful knowledge that encompasses the contextualization between scientific knowledge and social reality. Assuming that, the present work aimed to in-vestigate the teaching knowledge, built in the initial training of teachers of biological Sciences, regarding the appreciation of the students' local ecological knowledge and the contextualized teaching, since the conceptions built in the university are directly related to the teaching practice carried out in basic education institutions. For that, questionnaires were applied to undergraduate students in biological sciences from a public university in the state of Pernambuco, enrolled in the discipline of pedagogical practice V, besides some participatory interventions and observations in the discipline. It has been noted that there is a predominance of conceptions that value the use of local knowledge and its contextualization in science and biology classes. This indicates that most undergraduates have relevant conceptions about this knowledge and its importance for the construction of scientific knowledge. However, it was also found conceptions that did not fit the expected definitions for the recognition of their contextualization. The results are useful to reinforce the academic commitment that universities must have to ensure the approach of different types of knowledge during teacher training. Therefore, it is sure that the investment in an initial training of teachers who understand cultural and social aspects is essential for a teaching practice of good quality.