16 julho 2025 | 14h30 | UTAD
No próximo dia 16 de julho de 2025, pelas 14h30, realizam-se na UTAD as Provas do Programa Doutoral em Didática de Ciências e Tecnologia de Patrícia Alexandra Fonseca Pessoa.
A tese tem como título “BEE (Biological Evolution Education) for Sustainability How a socioscientific issues learning approach informed by biological evolution contributes to elementary students’ literacy on sustainability”, tendo sido desenvolvida sob a orientação de Xana Sá-Pinto (CIDTFF, DEP, UA) e coorientação de AJ. Bernardino Lopes (CIDTFF, UTAD) & José Alexandre da Silva Pinto (ESE-IPP, CIDTFF).
Esta tese explora de que forma a integração da educação em evolução, das questões sociocientíficas (SSI) e da educação para o desenvolvimento sustentável pode contribuir para o desenvolvimento da literacia evolutiva e das atitudes dos alunos do ensino básico face à sustentabilidade.
Através de seis estudos interligados, esta tese: i) analisa o estado da educação baseada em SSI em Portugal, ii) investiga de que forma a educação em evolução através das SSI pode promover competências para a sustentabilidade, iii) desenvolve um quadro conceptual para identificar oportunidades de integração de SSI nos currículos do ensino básico, iv) estabelece uma base teórica que liga a educação em evolução à educação para a sustentabilidade, v) apresenta uma ferramenta para avaliar as atitudes dos alunos do ensino básico face à conservação da diversidade intraespecífica e vi) avalia a influência de uma atividade baseada em SSI nas atitudes dos alunos do ensino básico relativamente à conservação da diversidade intraespecífica e à sua literacia evolutiva.
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Abstract
Promoting sustainable development requires citizens who are scientifically literate and capable of making informed decisions about complex global challenges. Addressing socioscientific issues (SSI) has been shown to promote the development of important skills that allow students to analyze complex issues from multiple perspectives, fostering their abilities to make informed decisions and developing responsible citizenship. Many sustainability-related SSI are intrinsically linked to evolutionary processes, as biological evolution plays a fundamental role in predicting ecological scenarios and informing and evaluating solutions to sustainability challenges. Understanding evolution, therefore, can contribute to the development of key sustainability competencies.
This dissertation explores how the integration of evolution education, SSI, and education for sustainable development can enhance students’ evolutionary literacy and sustainability-related attitudes from an early age. Through six interconnected studies, this research: i) examines the state of SSI-based education in Portugal, ii) investigates how evolution education through SSI can foster sustainability competencies, iii) develops a framework to identify SSI integration opportunities in elementary science curricula, iv) establishes a theoretical foundation linking evolution education and sustainability education, v) introduces a tool to assess elementary students’ attitudes toward intraspecific diversity conservation, and vi) evaluates the influence of an SSI-based activity on elementary students’ attitudes toward intraspecific diversity conservation and evolutionary literacy.
The findings highlight the potential of evolution education, when framed through an SSI approach, to serve as a catalyst for sustainability education. This dissertation contributes to both theoretical and practical dimensions of science education, offering new insights into how evolution education can be leveraged to promote sustainability. It provides empirical evidence, methodological tools, and policy recommendations for integrating evolution and sustainability education through SSI in elementary education. By promoting the development of skills in students to effectively engage with environmental and social challenges, this work reinforces the role of science education in preparing future generations for a more sustainable world.
Keywords: Science Education, Education for Sustainable Development, Socioscientific Issues (SSI), Evolutionary Literacy, Primary Education.
