Brasil Final Report - Department of Physics - The Ohio State University

1. A Brief History
13
PHYSICS TEACHING AND TEACHER EDUCATION IN BRAZIL
Ernst W. Hamburger
Instituto de Física
Universidade de São Paulo
Caixa Postal 66318
05315-970 São Paulo, SP
ehamburger@eciencia.usp.br
The universities in Brazil, where physicists are educated, were founded in the wake of the
revolution of 1930; the first graduates at Universidade de São Paulo are from 1936. World War II
accelerated industrialization and the educational system developed. The National Research Council
was founded in 1951, as well as research institutes. A new Education Law was approved in 1962.
At this time obligatory education was only five years, up to age 11, and illiteracy was common. A
military coup in 1964 interrupted democracy for 21 years. Graduate studies were introduced in
1965 and financial support for research increased markedly. A period of tyranny, 1968-74, caused
dismissal of top scientists and educators in various universities. Mandatory schooling was extended
to 8 years in 1970, and the number of secondary schools (ages 15 to 17) and universities grew.
Return to democracy, in 1985, brought a new Education Law. Today, 95% of children go to school,
on average for 7 years. Since 1995, enrolment in secondary school is expanding rapidly. Dropout
rates and retention rates are still high, but diminishing.
2. Physics
Physics research in Brazil started 1934 in São Paulo and Rio, led by Italian and German
immigrant physicists; soon talented young Brazilians were publishing in international journals.
After 1956 other centers outside Rio and São Paulo, such as here in Rio Grande do Sul, also started
research activities. Today there are about 50 research institutes and 3000 researchers in the country.
Physics teaching in schools, up to 1950, was bookish, with emphasis on rote learning and
application of algebraic formulae such as V = RI , with little understanding and no practical
applications or experiments. Almost no teachers had physics training. UNESCO inspired the
creation of IBECC, an institute in São Paulo to encourage science curriculum reform and emphasise
experiments. The curriculum projects triggered in the USA and other countries by the launching of
the Sputnik by the Soviet Union in 1956 – PSSC, Harvard Project Physics, IPS, Nuffield – were
partially translated and published in Brazil. UNESCO supported Pilot Project for curriculum
development for Optics course in São Paulo in 1963. Brazilian projects were also established: PEF –
Projeto de Ensino de Física , and FAI – Física Auto Instrutiva were two projects developed in São
Paulo published 1970-75. In recent years physics books for high school students, written by smaller
groups of teachers (e. g. Beatriz Alvarenga and Antonio Maximo; this year Alberto Gaspar, etc.),
mostly by private publishers, and a government financed project directed at teachers (GREF in
USP) appeared. Educational TV channels have produced physics courses for high school in 1975
(Colégio 2 – TV2 Cultura, SP), again in the eighties and once more in the nineties (Telecurso 2000).
3. Teacher Education
Teacher education in Brazil is done in Universities and Higher Education Institutes. Up to