THE MOLECULAR BIOLOGY TEACHING IN COLLEGES AND HIGH SCHOOLS OF SÃO PAULO

The main objective of this study was to evaluate the difficulties that teachers face, in high school as well as in undergraduate education, with the comprehension and interconnection of basic concepts of Molecular Biology (MB) and also evaluating how issues related to this subject, such as genetic engineering, transgenic foods and genome projects has been assumed. The research purpose was to explore new strategies that can contribute to enhance the web of knowledge of the teachers, providing them with confidence to apply the referred subject in classroom. The sample survey included 127 teachers, carried out between 2001 and 2003. They had to reply to a questionnaire with 3 sections of 10 questions each. The first section asked about the identification of the interviewed. The second inquired about the MB conceptions and the third section was about the conceptions of Science. The first section’s analysis indicated that a significant part of the sample did not have MB during their initial formation. The second section showed that good number of the teachers presented an insufficient, and in some cases, inadequate knowledge. Mass media matters seem, for this reason, to be treated on a superficial way and without linking them to the involved cellular processes. A significant amount of the surveyed teachers seemed to have only reached the phase of nominal and functional in the process of scientific literacy, keeping them distant from the multidimensional phase, which indicates the necessity to include MB as part of the undergraduate programs, as well as to provide programs designed to inform about the genome.

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