Perceptions of final years of public elementary school students about Science teaching during the COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic can be considered as the greatest paradigm break in the history of education in the 21^st century. Given its severity, the best alternative for mitigating damages in education remains emergency remote teaching (ERT), which is mediated, to a greater or lesser degree, by Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs). However, learning Science through this new methodological approach can be challenging, considering the inequalities in access and use of ICTs in Brazil. In addition, sometimes the Science subject requires of the students a great capacity of abstraction, which causes doubts and uncertainties in the teaching-learning process. Thus, the aim of the study was to question and understand how students in the final years of elementary school, from two cities with different socioeconomic realities, are noticing the learning in the Science subject. The qualitative-quantitative methodology used a questionnaire for data collection, descriptive statistics and content analysis for the discussion. The study identified notable differences between schools in the two cities surveyed, in relation to socioeconomic and ethnic aspects and their relationship with access to the internet, use of electronics and the impacts of these factors on learning in the Science discipline. The analysis meant that measures to combat the pandemic within the familiar context, that will reflect on school context are urgent, in order to reduce the impact of the negative effects on learning.