Tecnologias Digitais da Informação e Comunicação (TDICs) no ensino e aprendizagem de biologia

Abstract

This study examines high school students’ relationship with YouTube, one of the major Digital Information and Communication Technologies (DICTs), in the learning of Biology. The study aims to understand students’ perceptions of watching video lessons during their scientific education, which is otherwise delivered face-to-face by Biology teachers. In light of this aim, we investigated the criteria and motivations that lead students to access YouTube. Participants were students from Colégio Estadual Eduardo Silveira, in the municipality of Itabaiana, Sergipe, Brazil. One main finding is that memorization to answer school exams is the primary motivation for consuming vídeo lessons. Students report a stronger preference for video lessons than for the classes taught by their teachers in the regular in-person course. One reason mentioned is that teachers who produce video lessons present a more straightforward line of reasoning, consistent with the intentionality of explanation, something like “getting straight to the point.” Students also consider the vocabulary used in video lessons to be easier to understand, suggesting that they value the effort involved in didactic transposition (i.e., adapting knowledge for teaching). Students highlight the use of visual and audio resources as supports that help them stay attentive to the explanations offered in video lessons. Another attribute of video lessons, used as a consumption criterion, is their short duration, which is also consistent with the criterion of explanatory intentionality. The findings also indicate that students trust YouTube’s recommendation algorithm when choosing vídeo lessons and treat the number of comments on a video as an indicator of quality. While the education literature reports gains in autonomous learning through active uses of YouTube, the students investigated in this study only consume video lessons; they do not produce them. Finally, drawing on literature on learning theories and media education, we suggest that basic-education teachers act as content curators in their classes, that is, they should evaluate video lessons used in face-to-face teaching and guide students in creating their own video lessons, with a view to fostering active and autonomous learning.