Experiment as a Stabilized Network: associations, negotiations and some implications for science education

• Autor(a) principal: Ribeiro, Thiago Vasconcelos
• Data de Publicação: 2021
• Outros Autores: Silvano, Cláudio Morais, Santos, Aliny Tinoco, Genovese, Luiz Gonzaga Roversi
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: por
• Título da fonte: Caderno Brasileiro de Ensino de Física (Online)
• Texto Completo: https://periodicos.ufsc.br/index.php/fisica/article/view/65907

This article aims to discuss a traditional theme in science education research: experimental activities. The recurring use of rationalist epistemologies is questioned, which privilege a hierarchical relationship between theory and experiment and forget that experimentation is an activity related to the intervention and manipulation of specific and artificially constructed realities. An approach is advocated here that focuses on the emerging controversies in dealing with the concrete and the different negotiations imposed by the process of creating and stabilizing experimental phenomena. Using the concepts of the Actor-Network Theory, this position is discussed based on the qualitative analysis of a case study: the construction of an experimental didactic apparatus by a Physics graduate, with the purpose of composing his Conclusion Work of Course. The analyzed data were obtained from written records made by the licensee himself, photographs of the construction of the experimental apparatus and by a structured interview conducted with him at the end of the entire process. The analysis highlighted the controversial situations caused by the construction process that the experimental apparatus and the negotiations carried out, showing that this process also consists of the creation and stabilization of phenomena and actors, whose identities are always (re) defined contingently. Thus, it is evident that, both in science and in science teaching, creating and maintaining a stable phenomenon is making it even more social and collective. Finally, some important implications for science education are discussed.