Sociocultural Perspectives of Science and Learning: Contributions on Pedagogical Practices on STEM teachers in Service

This research study contributes to science teacher training by analyzing a curriculum that takes in sociocultural
perspectives of science and learning in in-service teachers' pedagogical practices. It is a qualitative study with a critical
hermeneutic methodology. The method used was a multiple case study, which inquires by exploring different cases in
depth. The information was collected within the framework of a postgraduate training program, with in-service teachers
from the areas of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM), in two settings: the training program and
the observation of their pedagogical practice. Results show that this sociocultural perspective of the curriculum
contributed to the pedagogical practices of the teachers under study in six different ways: i) generation of new
understandings of science, learning, and the discipline they teach; ii) identification of other meanings for the concepts
they teach; iii) changes in-class activities that help to recognize the identity of the scientific community; iv) inclusion of
strategies that foster the negotiation of meaning in the community; v) changes in the evaluation strategies, giving more
importance to feedback; and vi) generation of reflexive processes about the pedagogical practice in a more conscious
way.