Dando vida ao imaginário: a utilização de mapas mentais como estratégia no ensino de educação ambiental em uma escola pública de Aracaju - Sergipe

Abstract

The approach to mind maps in this research was motivated by the guidelines contained in the National Curricular Parameters that suggest sociocultural and humanist treatment for basic education. Mental maps are drawings conceived from human experience that refer to the expression of affectivity, the conscious and, often, the human unconscious. In this context, they composed the instruments of this research, which aimed to verify the applicability of mental maps as a representation of nature, in search of evidence of understanding and engagement with socio-environmental issues of students at the Professor José Carlos de Sousa Center of Excellence, in Aracaju/SE. This is a qualitative, applied and descriptive research, with a methodological path developed from a semi-structured questionnaire and the application of mental maps to students of the first year of the new full-time teaching, in the second half of 2022. This investigation was based on the method Kozel for analysis of mind maps and Bardin for content analysis. The initial mental maps of most students indicated lack of knowledge about concepts related to nature and disregard for socio-environmental issues, in addition to socio-behavioral particularities. The research signals the need for closer ties between pedagogical practices that consider students' thoughts and experiences, as well as the need to reflect on teaching practices, so that the role of the school institution can be fulfilled. As a technical product of this research, a practical digital guide was developed on the strategy of using mental maps in environmental education, significantly contributing to subsidize didactic-pedagogical proposals, aiming at a reflective environmental education.