Global Journal of Human Social Science, G: Linguistics and Education, Volume 21 Issue 14

© 2021 Global Journals Volume XXI Issue XIV Version I 19 ( G ) Global Journal of Human Social Science - Year 2021 Conceptions about Teaching DNA in Basic Education: A Reading based on Henri Atlan As for the DL, of the 8 (eight) analyzed, approximately 88% address the concept of DNA as a program, referring to it as a "template", "carrier of genetic information" or simplifying its performance with the following metaphor: " changing the number and sequence of the letters, we alter the phrase”. Only one work puts DNA in the condition of data. It emphasizes that "DNA contains information regarding the structure and functioning of the organism, yet it is only part of a complex mechanism", providing DNA with a characteristic of data that, when combined in different ways, acts on the complexity of gene performance. As for the DNA approach, the professors state that the LD collection adopted in the last triennium approaches DNA superficially, considering the DNA - RNA - protein linearity, without approaching the cellular mechanisms regulating gene expression, and epigenetics. Still, we observe quantitatively that the discourse of 75% of teachers participating in this research, the whole is constituted as the sum of the parts, when referring to DNA as a program. In a complex approach, recognition of the DNA concept is not linked to the parts, but to its internal and external interrelationship, that is, between the concept of DNA and the environment in which it is found, as shown in Graph 3 : Source: The authors based on research data Graph 3: Linear approach x complexity in teachers' discourse when teaching DNA Still, when questioned about the Human Genome Project (PGH), all the participating teachers answered that the objective was to map, identify and demarcate genes in order to know how each one of them works. It is observed in this question, that the idea of “mapping” and “establishing” within this mapping is to identify exactly what each gene did/does. Once again, we notice the linearity present in the teachers' conception of DNA. This makes us wonder whether really the design of DNA data as part of the conception of the universe of the participating teachers in this research and the how urgent is the mediation of knowledge networked, in contemporary times, to the classroom. This same linearity was found by Joaquin and El- Hani (2010, p. 94) when they carried out a study on the need to revise the gene concept. For the authors, the PGH also conceptualizes the gene in a reductionist and linear way, “in a classic molecular model, according to one in which a gene is a DNA fragment that encodes a functional product (polypeptide or RNA)”. It is also important to mention at this point that very little of the new knowledge about the advances found in Molecular Biology actually reach the classroom, as shown by the analysis of the data results of the questionnaire regarding teachers' conception or by the textbooks adopted in the last PNLD in the State of Paraná. For Joachim and El- Hani (2010), to review the concept of the gene as a DNA fragment encoding a protein require that research with so-called junk DNA, micro-RNAs, si-RNAs, pseudogenes, Retrogenes, silencing genes, among other knowledge elaborated in the post-PGH, are didactically transposed in the textbooks and presented to the teachers. This can occur in processes of initial and continuing education, which become part of the knowledge mediated by teachers in the classroom, as it provides students with an understanding of the complexity of the gene/DNA, for example, in the formation of the characteristics of eukaryotes: The meaning of a gene is not contained in the nucleotide sequence of DNA, but emerges as a process involving the system by which genes are interpreted, including the cell and, in a series of flukes, the supracellular environment. Thus, genes are not given in the DNA, but are made by the cell. This vision is, for researchers, fundamental to the understanding that it is not the DNA that controls the cell, it is not the DNA that 'does things' with the cell, as is often taught, but the cell is the one that 'does things' ' with DNA, which is a repository of useful biological information and not a catalyst for processes or a development program or a cell controller (JOAQUIM and EL-HANI, 2010, p. 110-111). Thus, DNA gene review of the concept proposed by El-Joachim and Hani supports the proposal advocated here by Henri Atlanta Georgia (2003, 2006 and 2013) to treat DNA as a data set used by the cell as its biological mechanisms and interaction with the environment. Therefore, both the teachers' discourse and the textbooks adopted for teaching Biology contributed to this analysis and conclusions of how DNA has been