ACTION RESEARCH: ‘PROJECT METHODOLOGY’ IN THE PRACTICE OF PHYSICS TEACHERS

Abstract

This paper presents an alternative to guide the teaching-learning process in a Physics Teacher Education Program in Brazil through the relationship between “methodology of projects” and action-research to break with the logic of content transmission and memorization in that area. The “methodology of projects” can create and incorporate knowledge through two main aspects: 1. The elaboration and development of projects articulated around a research program on an ongoing basis; 2. The development of action-research projects in their emancipatory component through a social and rational management of cycles that take place in a spiral of stages of planning, acting, observing of facts, and reflection on the result of the action. Articulating “methodology of projects” and action-research enables a collaborative educational environment that helps the act of teaching about how to think based upon systematic and self-critical inquiry. In this environment, students are challenged to learn to work with each other in a reflective process that takes places individually and collectively, paying attention to the different types and rhythms of learning. In this way, the article helps Physics teachers to find ways to intervene in their own educational practice so they can gradually also interfere, consciously, in the reality that surrounds them.