Abstract
The research aimed to understand, from spontaneous responses, the processes of the construction of scientific concepts by students in biology classes, when dealing with the topic "The Origin of Life". The participants were 45 public high school students in Blumenau, Santa Catarina, Brazil. As instruments of data collection, we used video recording of classes together with semi-structured interviews and a Construction and Complement Activity. We analyzed the data through a Historical and Cultural matrix - a microgenetic analysis. As a result, we noticed that we could characterize the teaching and learning of the subject in the classroom as extremely complex, since cultural and affective aspects are involved in the construction of scientific concepts. We could also observe that some students, especially after the teaching process, presented concepts grounded in the scientific studied done during the classes, outperforming their earlier concepts.
Keywords:
Historical and cultural theory; Concepts; Teaching and learning; Biology teaching; High School