Envelhecimento humano no ensino dos cursos de Educação Física : um olhar para Universidades Comunitárias da Mesorregião Noroeste Rio-grandense

Abstract

Human aging has presented several demands for society. One of these demands refers to the professional formation of physical educators who act in the contribution and maintenance of the elderly s health and well-being. Before this context, this work evaluated the teaching curricular practices, research and extension, concerning the Human Aging process in the graduation courses of Physical Education of the Community Universities in the Northwest Midregion in Rio Grande do Sul state. It is characterized as a study of multiple cases, which nature is qualitative, and its purpose is exploratory and descriptive. The case was composed of the current curriculum from 2011 to 2013 of three bachelor courses in Physical Education. The Pedagogical Projects (PP), the curricular matrix and teaching plans were evaluated as for their contents, justifications, objectives, programing contents of the disciplines and basic references; also, their Final Graduation Works (FGW) and research and extension projects. It was tried to identify the theme Human Aging through the following descriptors: geriatrics, gerontology, elderly, aging and senescence. To explore the material, the content analysis technique was used. It made feasible to extract three theme categories: curricular organization for life biologization, (I) Job Market Logics showing the professor s formation and aging as human movement dimension. This work presented like two scientific productions, where the first one shows the curricular organization theme category for life biologization. The second one focuses on the two other categories. Yet, it was observed that there are guidelines and efforts towards the inclusion of the theme, mainly in the courses curricular grade and teaching plan, though in two courses, the construction of a proposal based on the new life stage is not clearly observed. And, when it is presented, it was observed a profile of a fragmented academic formation, tendency to biological health, the elderly s excluding nature and the association of aging to the disease. The other course presents actions regarding to the human aging theme as a whole and a more accurate awareness tangent to the social commitment of the High Education Institution (HEI) before the demand presented by the aging phenomenon. It was observed that two courses demonstrate a limitation on the link between teaching, research and extension, while the other course presents coherence in the indissociability between teaching, research and extension. This latter presents higher professors qualification that seems to interfere in the quality of the education actions directed to aging. In all the courses evaluated, it was observed a great lack towards political, sociological, anthropological and philosophical issues of human aging. Before these results, the courses evaluated, concerning the professional formation quality, must aim at the effective ability of the Physical Education students so that the concepts associated to human aging do not limit to the biological aspects of the human being and that aging and disease are not considered as synonyms. Furthermore, a critical eye must be taken on these curricula so that changes can be made in the current structure of these curricular actions, and from this modified knowledge, new attitudes in the work with elderlies occurs, making the society and professors have a new vision on aging