Mapas conceituais: tecnologia cognitiva para entendimento textual na educação de jovens e adultos

Abstract

This exploratory and experimental research aims to analyze the use of Concept Maps as a Cognitive Technology for textual understanding in adult education. The research was conducted with Youth and Adult elementary school students during Portuguese language classes. To achieve this goal, the pedagogical features implemented in the study context were observed and then they were applied in 28 lessons divided into 7 study units , for two groups of 15 students classified as Control and Experimental Groups. For the first group, the classes were taught following the traditional method which was seen in the initial observations. For the Experimental Group, a methodology based on the creation of Concept Maps was developed. The teaching methodology was theoretically grounded in studies on the Theory of Meaningful Learning, Concept Maps, Textual Coherence, and Discursive Textual Analysis. To analyze the evolution in the construction of Concept Maps and textual understanding, we used Student\'s t-test, the Discursive Textual Analysis proposed by Moraes and Galiazzi, and Wordle. The data analysis showed that the Experimental Group achieved a 30% increase in the conceptual framework with a fostering in the propositional meaningful learning when compared to the Control Group. This group was also more capable to turn declarative knowledge into procedural. The Conceptual Map proved, therefore, to be a Cognitive Technology effective for increasing textual understanding in the context of the search.