“Practice as a Curriculum Component” activities in a first semester discipline of a undergraduate Physics education courses at a federal public university: analyzes and perspectives

Abstract

This article aims to produce reflections on two current public policies that impact teacher education. The first concerns the insertion of “practice as a curricular component" activities throughout the course. In this sense, we present and analyze some results of the "practice as a curricular component" activities developed in a first semester discipline of a Physics undergraduate course at a Federal Public University. The second involves the National Textbook Program, because the discipline takes as its theme, for the interaction with the basic school, the uses and role of the Physics textbook. We performed a descriptive statistical analysis based on reports produced by students, which describe interaction with the school. Following, we present a qualitative analysis, through the construction of categories, of the “speeches” and perceptions of future teachers, expressed in these reports. The results show that the textbook distributed by the National Textbook Program is, in many schools, underused or, at least, little encouraged for reading of the students. On the other hand, we found that "practice as a curricular component" activities are highly appreciated by the undergraduates, who have the opportunity to interact with the school space since the first semester. These activities adding knowledge from the experiential knowledge of active teachers and can make future teachers more reflective and engaged in the face of the complexities and beauties of Physics teaching.