ACTIVE METHODOLOGIES IN HIGHER EDUCATION: A STUDY OF TEACHING PRACTICE IN THE TEACHING OF CHEMISTRY

Abstract

The transformations that have been happening on the world stage, especially in Brazil, have caused significant impacts on the educational system in terms of the teaching and learning process. Because of this, there is a need for a change of paradigms that allow bringing quick answers to the demands of the students, especially for a new generation of academic entrants, represented by Generation Y, also known as Internet Generation and whose information is available through various tools. In this perspective, the present work aimed to analyze the level of knowledge, on the part of teachers of the undergraduate Chemistry course at UFPI, regarding active learning methodologies in the process of training future teachers. An online questionnaire was applied to a group corresponding to 42% of the chemistry teachers, with the results indicating that more than half of them know and have applied these methodologies in the classroom, as well as that most of them have not attended training courses, thus they probably could not take advantage of what the various active methodologies can provide. Thus, it is observed the importance of working new methodologies to approach content in the classroom, such as flipped classroom, debates and problem-based learning, among others, so that undergraduate students can replicate the use of these methodologies with their future students, aiming to optimize the teaching and learning process.