The Relation between Thought and Language, and Misunderstandings in the Teaching of Biology

Abstract:

The aim of this study was to investigate the misunderstandings produced by the relationship between thought and language in Biology Education, with the identification of variabilities that may interfere with didactic articulation. We have surveyed data from research both in progress and published over the last decade by the Epistemology of Biology Research Group of São Paulo State University (UNESP). This has allowed for the systematization of a set of identified variables, which can pose difficulty to the articulation of didactic, epistemological, cognitive and linguistic processes in the initial training/education of teachers of biological sciences and that may lead to the incomprehension of Biology as a science or its inter-relations. The results suggest that polysemy and figures of speech stimulate human thought to distort concepts that are contrary to Biological Epistemology.

Keywords:
Biology teaching; Initial teacher training; Didactics; Epistemology; Cognitive processes