Chemistry teaching in a STS perspective: advances and obstacles experienced by teachers in the elaboration of their own instructional materials

This work presents an analysis of materials produced by chemistry teachers based on the STS approach. A tool was elaborated to analyze the structure of these instructional materials. Theoretical and practical guidance were given to the teachers' group. In the beginning of the meetings, most teachers characterized STS teaching as a simple exemplification of everyday life and few teachers understood STS as a scientific description of facts and processes aimed at teaching chemistry. However, the materials produced by some teachers revealed an improvement of the understanding of STS. In addition, other teachers who seemed to have a high level of understanding, produced materials with simplistic views of the STS approach. Some difficulties pointed out by the teachers in considering applying the instructional materials were related to public policies, difficulty in disrupting the traditional sequence presented in most of textbooks, and a resistance to change their own view of teaching.

Chemistry teaching; Teacher's continued education; Science, Technology and Society; STS; Didactic materials