TO BE PHYSICS TEACHER: SOCIAL REPRESENTATION IN LICENTIATE DEGREE

ABSTRACT:

In this study we investigated the Social Representations (SR) about “being a Physics teacher” of freshman and graduating students of two public institutions in Paraná state. The data was collected among 54 graduates using free evocation of words and processes organized in semantic groups to build frames for four houses to make possible to identify the central nucleus and periphery of SR. In the freshman groups investigated the core elements focused on a tradicionalist and positivist teaching perspective despite the concern to develop a reflexive practice. That result remained among the graduating group indicating that inicial training did not significantly influenced their representations wich are closer to common sense than scientific knowledge concerning the teaching profession.

Keywords:
Teacher training; Common sense; Physics students