ANALOGIAS EM LIVROS DIDÁTICOS DESTINADOS AO ENSINO SUPERIOR: QUÍMICA ORGÂNICA VERSUS FÍSICO-QUÍMICA

The Chemistry’s textbooks, as a rule, make use of analogies because it is a discipline that involves many abstract concepts. However, there is little research involving identification and explanation of the analogies used in textbooks directed to higher education. In this sense, this work presents a comparative study of the analogies found in Organic Chemistry and Physical Chemistry books intended for students in higher education. 277 analogies were identified in the analyzed books and categorized as adapted systems Treagust &Thiele (1994) and Francisco Junior (2009). A better approach of using analogies in these books was held, as well as verification of the important role of teachers in the use of this teaching resource. The results indicate that these books are rich in simple analogies, emphasizing structural analogues in the case of organic chemistry books and functional analogues in the Physical Chemistry ones. Simple analogies are easier to induce students to conceptual errors because they show few similarities between the compared areas. It is important to emphasize that this study observed a low occurrence of analogies in which the author of the book recognizes the limitations and/or discusses these limitations, replaying the entire liabilitytothe teacher and the student in relation to the explanation and perception of analogies, respectively. It is necessary to state that many of the analogies found in some chapters of the analyzedbooks, could be removed without significant loss of understanding of the concepts discussed.