Developing ecological literacy in a forest garden : children’s perspectives

Today, cities become more dense, green spaces disappear and children spend less time outdoors. Research suggests that these conditions create health problems and lack of ecological literacy. To reverse such trends, localities are creating urban green spaces for children to visit during school time. Drawing on ideas in ecological literacy, this study investigates school children’s perspectives on a forest garden, a type of outdoor educational setting previously only scarcely researched. Data were collected through walk-and-talk conversations and informal interviews with 28 children aged 7 to 9. Many children in the study expressed strong positive feelings about the forest garden, the organized and spontaneous activities there, and caring for the organisms living there. We observed three aspects of learning in the data, potentially beneficial for the development of children’s ecological literacy: practical competence, learning how to co-exist and care, and biological knowledge and ecological understanding

Imagens em narrativa: contraposição cultural e interdisciplinaridade no ensino fundamental Pictures in narrative: cultural counterpoint and interdisciplinarity in Secondary Education

Com as transformações pelas quais passa o conhecimento científico na atualidade, a narrativa transformou-se em tema de relevância, quando se pesquisam questões relativas à construção de significado na experiência humana. Investigada como técnica de ensino junto a alunos de 6ª série de Botucatu, São Paulo, os quais foram confrontados com o ambiente urbano de Salvaterra, Ilha de Marajó, revelou que a força das oposições binárias, previstas teoricamente, estimula a reelaboração de conceitos prévios, revisão e resignificação de valores e de condicionamentos sociais. A narrativa como técnica de ensino propicia aprendizagem efetiva, com o espectador organizando a sequência de imagens apresentada e fazendo emergir significado de acordo com as suas experiências e estrutura cognitiva.<br>The current scientific knowledge shift has transformed the narrative into a relevant theme when we search the significance of the human experience. Investigated as a teaching technique among sixth year students from Botucatu City, in São Paulo State, that were confronted by the urban environment of the Salvaterra Village, on Marajó Island, in Brazil, it revealed the strength of the binary oppositions, that are previewed in the conceptual sketch, stimulated the re-elaboration of the previous concepts, and re-signification of both, values and social conditioning. The narrative, used as a teaching technique, supplies an effective learning, so that the spectator sets the sequence of picture, making to emerge meaning according to his experience and cognitive structure