Animal Experimentation in Higher Education: A Teaching Strategy Based on Prieto’s Semiology

Marcela Teixeira Godoy, Carlos Eduardo Laburu 
(Universidade Estadual de Londrina, Paraná, Brazil)

Abstract: Didactic planning developed based on the semiology seems to favor the construction of scientific knowledge and the attribution of meanings by students, favoring the understanding of the content studied. This study discusses the first part of some research based on the messages and signs semiology proposed by Luis Jorge Prieto, bringing to light the conceptions of science professors and teachers to be on Animal Experimentation. The approach joined the dialogical/univocal discourse process to the multimodal representation reference to inform the Scientific Education learning process. The study was developed during a teacher development course, comprising fifteen attendees, university students and professors in the Biological Sciences area. Data was collected through open/close ended question questionnaires which were applied before and after the didactic intervention. The analysis of the semiotic act potential and the importance of analyzing messages and signs for the development of a meaningful teaching strategy that leads students to build up concepts on animal experimentation was carried out through the interaction of multimodal representation and dialogical/univocal discourse. The study also provided some insight on the human beings relationship with animal and non-human species.

Key words: animal experimentation, semiology, teaching sciences