Reading to learn Biology. In higher education. The teacher as a mediator between the text and the students’ interpretations

Abstract

We shared reflections on reading situations developed in class at the higher level and the criteria by which they were proposed. The design and implementation of this type of situations in the classroom is essential to the critical review of the disciplinary content to be promoted from the teaching. The research was carried out under the guidelines of the theoretical-methodological approach of Didactic Engineering. We present the analysis of two reading situations, one referring to
thinking from a case and the other to deepen the knowledge provided by science. The first one includes links between texts and analysis of some of the possible interventions: unfolding an idea, specifying information that the text provides and offering specific information. As a prelude to the second one, students elaborated model representations from their ideas and from the interpretations of the texts read. The second one deals with theoretical explanations and analysis of
one of the interventions that we call exit and entry to the text. We concluded that reading in class, contextualizing the readings and offering different instances to return to the text, encourages the expression of genuine questions and calls them to get involved with the subject of study by improving their link with reading and disciplinary knowledge.