"BEING A TEACHER"

the importance of knowledge about the practice to construct a personal didactic model

Abstract

In this autobiographical text, I aim at highlighting the importance school life has in the construction of a teacher's didactic model. I will start by reflecting on my own experience as a student in elementary and high school, college, and post-graduation programs, as a teacher in technical courses, and as a professor in college. I intend to problematize my early ideas - originated in a traditional teaching/learning model - about "being a teacher", in order to go beyond this pedagogical common sense. I understand that, if teaching is supposed to construct new and meaningful knowledge, it should be much more reflexive and dependent upon the conceptions of the subjects (students and teachers) that are involved in the educational process. This study has a constructivist bias (currently part of my academic and professional life) in counterpoint to that of a traditional view of education (present in my early conceptions), mainly regarding the teacher's role. To sum up, I aim at discussing how academic education (basic and college education, and post-graduation programs) can interfere in the didactic-pedagogical conceptions a teacher has, mainly in the teaching of Sciences.