Geografia no 3º ciclo do ensino básico e as possibilidades de rentabilização do conceito '' paisagem ''

Resumo

There is, in Portugal, a long tradition with respect to the initialisation of the study of Geography (in the first year of the third cycle of basic education – 12-13 years old students) with the subject “Landscape”. Curricula have succeeded themselves with a view to meeting the needs, solicitations and interests of the Society, as well as the developments concerning Education and Geography. Curiously, “landscape” continues to be a starting concept within the subject of Geography and several textbooks give a somewhat subdued approach to it. Our empirical knowledge about some teaching practices strengthens our idea that the “landscape” is the core of the first lessons, being an introductory concept with very few development and engagement as the discipline evolves.
Notwithstanding the fact that the existing Curricular Guidelines for the third
cycle of basic education (7th to 9th school year) allow for an apparently discrete
role to the Landscape, flexibility, which is the mark of the present curriculum,
allows each teacher to give a very different structure and sequence to the teaching-learning process. On the other hand, the development of competencies
should be given main priority, according to the official guidelines. Having these considerations in mind, we idealise didactic guidelines that are chain-linked (guaranteeing the articulation between the cycle, the year and the didactic unit) and that, simultaneously, extensively tap the concept “landscape”. Thus, we intend to make the transition from the “landscape” taken as an initial topic to a context where it becomes an integrating concept in the whole discipline of Geography over the third cycle of basic education. This proposal stems from a revitalisation and amplification of this concept within the geographic science, as well as from its didactic potential.