The External Representations in the Teaching and Learning of Biochemistry

• Autor(a) principal: Santos, V.J.S.V.
• Data de Publicação: 2012
• Outros Autores: Galembeck, E.
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: por
• Título da fonte: Revista de Ensino de Bioquímica
• Texto Completo: http://bioquimica.org.br/revista/ojs/index.php/REB/article/view/126
• topic: Visual Literacy, Learning, Biochemistry.

Visual Literacy can be defined as the ability to understand, use, think, learn and express themselves  through  images.  Considering  that  the  use  of  images  is  essential  for Biochemistry teaching and learning, this research aims to investigate the development of abilities  of  reading  and  interpretation  of  images  by  students  from  a  Biochemistry undergraduate course of the Federal University of São João Del-Rei. The Visual Literacy level was assessed using a questionnaire validated in a previous educational research. This diagnosis questionnaire was elaborated according to six visual abilities identified as essential for the study of the metabolic pathways. Results showed that the most of the students  evaluated  presented  difficulties  in  the  Ability  1  (identification  of  chemical reactions). These students were unable to identify the reversibility of chemical reaction. Similarly,  for  the  ability  5  (comprehension  of  dynamic  and  integrated  processes  in metabolic  pathways)  was  observed  a  deficiency  in  understanding  of  schematic representations of metabolic cycles (less than 30% of correct answers). However, it was verified  that  to  the  ability  2  (identification  of  substrates  and  products  of  chemical reactions)  the  students  demonstrated  satisfactory  performance  (over  50%  of  correct answers).  In  the  other  abilities  evaluated  the  number  of  correct  answers  varied according  to  the  progress  of  students  in  the  course  (30  to  80%  of  correct  answers). These  results  showed  that  the  questionnaire  used  is  an  interesting  tool  for  the investigation, indicating that Visual Literacy level necessary to understand the metabolic processes can be enhanced with the progress of the students along the undergraduate course.