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

© 2021 Global Journals Volume XXI Issue XIV Version I 20 ( G ) Global Journal of Human Social Science - Year 2021 Conceptions about Teaching DNA in Basic Education: A Reading based on Henri Atlan mediated in the classroom with our students. A mediation that aggregates conceptions of DNA as a program and not as data, demonstrating the linearity of working with the theme in question. Although Biology is conceived within the Newtonian mechanistic model, new studies point to a paradigm shift regarding the concept (Atlan, 2003, 2006 and 2013) and, therefore, a differentiated proposition needs to be proposed in order to advance towards teaching Biology as a complex approach. Thus, when considering the complex approach to knowledge, it is important to take into account disorder and chance, circularity, unity in multiplicity and contradiction. For Morin (2006), with regard to studies of complexity, it is necessary to adopt a notion of 'system' as one of the operators of knowledge. With this research, the potential in mediating the concept of DNA at school through and in complexity is pointed out. Terminologies based in the 'complex systems', which give the non-linearity of the DNA concept reveals in fact how this molecule behaves in a 'system', for example. Therefore, it is important to emphasize the need for knowledge mediated in the school curricula be linked to approaches which have been discussed and presented in the academy (wise learning) going through successive transpositions Teaching (Chevallard, 2013) until these are embedded to the school’s curriculum and textbooks (learning to teach). This review of concepts, both in textbooks and in the discourse of teachers is extremely necessary, considering that the reductionist thinking does nothing to contribute to the students' adequate appropriation of the form and function of DNA in cells. For this reason, DNA needs to be understood as a networked and extremely complex data structure, as presented and discussed below. b) DNA as data/network structure and complexity/ epigenetics We rely on authors as Henri Atlan and Edgar Morin, which contributed with their research in recent decades as they warn us that the complexity relates to an interaction between systems. An approach defended by Atlan (2013) is DNA as data in a systemic and quite complex structure, understanding that, as "data" is observed, DNA has multiple possibilities of combining these data in a dynamic process, strongly influenced by the gene regulation of each cell type and by epigenetic mechanisms. This epigenetic approach appears very timid in the textbooks analyzed in this research. It is important to emphasize that, a priori, it focused on the teachers' discourse about the design of DNA and how it is reinforced in the textbooks adopted by these professionals in their schools. However, we carefully analyze these adopted textbooks, according to the epistemic foundations presented and discussed, because of the expressive number, a total of 60% of the professors participating in the research, do not know the term and choose not to answer the question, or even, they do not notice the presence of the concept or research with epigenetics in the adopted textbook. From the teachers who answered the questions in the questionnaire: “In the Biology Textbook adopted by your school/college in the last National Textbook Plan (PNLD) how is the theme DNA approached? Does research with epigenetics appear in the chapter that addresses the topic of DNA?”, the analysis of the participating teachers answers shows that “DNA is approached in a very theoretical and traditional way, with indications for further complementary readings and the epigenetics is practically non-existent” (teacher 1), or even, “there are few subjects that deal with questions about epigenetic research” (professor 7). In this aspect, it can be seen from the analysis of the data collected, that the statement of teachers is closely linked to the LD they adopted. From the eight (8) LD analyzed only one (1) presents the epigenetic conception of DNA (as given) and systematizes it as content for High School. Therefore, the present discourse of teachers in the State of Paraná on DNA is strongly based on the textbooks adopted, in which the reductionist/linear approach predominates. In a DNA-as-data approach, the complexity of cell-DNA interactions are important factors to be considered in teaching and, therefore, recent epigenetic research needs to be present in textbooks, as well as in the knowledge of teachers in the classroom. According Atlanta Georgia (2013), a paradigm shift occurs to the extent of the linearity (DNA-characteristic) becomes considered from the complex (DNA-epigenetic). Unfortunately, it can be seen from the data collected that this paradigm shift is still a long way off, as shown in Graph 4 . Source: The authors based on research data Graph 4: Conceptions in teaching DNA