LEARNING THEORIES: ANALYSIS OF A TRANSDISCIPLINARY DIDACTIC SEQUENCE IN THE NEW HIGH SCHOOL IMPLEMENTED IN A PUBLIC SCHOOL IN THE STATE OF MINAS GERAIS

Abstract

This study aims to present a transdisciplinary didactic sequence developed by the author and to analyze its construction and reflections through the lens of learning theories. The sequence was implemented in a public school in the state of Minas Gerais, in the city of Belo Horizonte, with a second-year class in the subject "Applied Sciences," part of the formative itinerary of the New High School in the year 2023. Aware that the New High School must be aligned with the National Common Curricular Base (BNCC), transdisciplinarity was proposed to meet the new 21st-century curricular demands. As pedagogical tools used in the didactic sequence, biomedical measurement instruments commonly found at home or during a simple visit to a medical office (sphygmomanometers and digital clinical thermometers) were employed, encouraging students to view them with a “new perspective”—a scientific and expanded one—where biomedical data provide average parameters of health indicators, bringing to the classroom a discussion on the limitations of instrumental measurements of such parameters. In designing the pedagogical practice, the author drew from literature on learning theories, as well as transdisciplinary approaches to holistically address concepts such as health, physiology, physics of biomedical instruments, and statistics through student data collection. The importance of understanding learning theories is highlighted to ensure that didactic sequences are pedagogically intentional. Overall, the author believes that the pedagogical objectives were achieved, based on the individual and collective positive informal feedback from the class.