WAYS TO THINK AND SPEAK ADAPTATION: A THEORETICAL-METHODOLOGICAL CONTRIBUTION TO CHARACTERIZATION OF CONCEPTUAL PROFILE ZONES
conceptual profiels; adaptation concept, teaching of evolution, discourse analysis
The notion of ways of speaking and their relation to modes of thinking were associated with the conceptual profile by Mortimer from the 2000s. From then on, research in conceptual profiles assumed that different modes of thinking are related to different ways of speaking certain concept. From a review about the theoretical and methodological treatment given by researchers in conceptual profiles to the investigation of the notion of ways of speaking, we identified two perspectives regarding their identification, characterization and relationship with the construction of profile models. The first of these, historically the one that inaugurates the studies of ways of speaking associated with modes of thinking found in the works of Mortimer (2001) and Amaral (2004), is an approach to ways of speaking as a description of the discursive-pedagogical context when a zone of a conceptual profile emerges. The other was initially developed by Coutinho (2005), followed by Nicolli (2009) and refined by Sepulveda (2010), and identifies ways of speaking typical of each of the zones of a conceptual profile. These latter results in a theoretical-methodological movement of internalization of the ways of speaking into profile models as one of the elements in the characterization of zones. From the survey and analysis of the theoretical dialogues and methodological procedures used by the authors in their work to identify and characterize the ways of speaking, we propose, in this work, a theoretical-methodological framework for the characterization of conceptual profile zones, especially with regard to the ways of speaking. From the survey and analysis of the theoretical dialogues and methodological procedures used by the authors in their work to identify and characterize the ways of speaking, we propose, in this work, a theoretical-methodological framework for the characterization of conceptual profile zones, especially with regard to the ways of speaking. This methodological structure fulfills the following roles: (1) rescue and associate methodological steps used by the authors to characterize the ways of speaking along the research program trajectory in conceptual profiles; and (2) integrating new theoretical and methodological propositions, specifically, the use of Lemke's (1990) notion of science dialogue patterns - organizational pattern of dialogue and thematic pattern - and the top-down analysis of the discourse genre proposed by Rojo (2007). The analytical structure proposed in this paper was applied, in an integrated way to the conceptual profile of adaptation proposed by Sepulveda (2010), to the discursive analysis of evolutionary teaching episodes, produced during a sequence of classes on “Darwinian Theory of Evolution: analysis historical and epistemological of challenges and perspectives of teaching ”, in a class of the 4th semester undergradued studente of biological sciences at a state university in Bahia. The results produced from this analysis allow us to conclude that: (1) the theoretical-methodological structure proposed in this work, when employed in an integrated manner with a conceptual profile, in our case, the profile of adaptation concept modeled by Sepulveda (2010), made it possible to describe, in semantic, social, and linguistic terms, the discursive contexts in which there is negotiation and construction of meanings; (2) the characterization of the epistemological and ontological commitments of the zones of the conceptual profile of adaptation (SEPULVEDA, 2010) presented some limits for discursive analysis in evolutionary higher education, for example, the commitment to a prospective view of adaptation that can be shared between providential adjustment zones and adaptationist approach to organic form; (3) the conceptual profile of adaptation proposed by Sepulveda (2010), after evaluation and sophistication, constitutes a tool for analyzing the heterogeneity of modes of thinking about this concept in higher education of evolution. Moreover, this study has implications for the research program in conceptual profiles, among them, the proposition of a systematized methodology for the enunciative characterization of the ways of speaking that seeks to reconcile the perspectives historically used in the program through the top-down methodology of Backhtin´s analyisis of enuciantion proposed by Rojo (2007) and Lemke's thematic pattern (1999).