Dissertation Defense
Student: Bruno Rocha Xavier
Program: Mestrado Profissional em Ensino de Astronomia
Title: “Creating New Possibilities in the Teaching of Astronomy for Brazil's Deaf Community”
Advisor: Prof. Dr. Elysandra Figueredo Cyprianoa - IAG/USP
Judging Committee:
- Prof. Dr. Elysandra Figueredo Cypriano – IAG/USP (chair)
- Prof. Dr. Roberto Dell'Aglio Dias da Costa – IAG/USP
- Prof. Dr. Beatriz Cavalheiro Critelli - UNIFESP
- Prof. Dr. Marcos Rincon Voelzke - UNICSUL
Resumo: Teaching astronomy to deaf students means facing serious difficulties. First the lack of signs on the Brazilian sign language (Libras), wich incorporates only a small number of signs related to scientific and astronomical subjects and concepts. In fact the same scarcity of signs occurs in relation to Portuguese words used in astronomy. This fact results in great difficulty in transmitting information about the phenomena of the stars. On the one hand, there is a lack of signs in Libras and, on the other hand, the prospect of improving this lack of signs is distant, given the different nature of Libras (visual spatial language) and Portuguese (oral language). However, observations in deaf special schools show that the intensive use of didactic visual resources, specially adapted for deaf students, is a pedagogical practice with high potential for impact and results in the teaching and learning of astronomy. This master dissertation follows a journey that begins by investigating the presence of astronomy subjects in sign languages and then continues with interviews with deaf elementary and high school students, and their teachers as well. So advances to the analysis of the main learning difficulties reported in the interviews, selects or develops a set of didactic visual resources aimed at solving these difficulties and, finally, organizes examples of their use in astronomy lesson plans. Because it studies the elements and phenomena of the universe, astronomy has a very strong visual expression, making it a very interesting field to develop teaching visual resources. This would improve astronomy learning, making it an important tool to stimulate deaf students' scientific thinking and interest in science. In other words, contribute to their better educational development and future social inclusion.
Palavras-chave: Astronomy; Libras; Deaf; Learning; Education