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Take part... and you will bear witness to the semiotic nature of human animals. This event, commented by Charbel Niño El-Hani (Federal University of Bahia) and chaired by Elma Berisha (Lyceum Institute), is part of the activities of the 2022 International Open Seminar on Semiotics: a Tribute to John Deely on the Fifth Anniversary of His Passing, cooperatively organized by the Institute for Philosophical Studies of the Faculty of Arts and Humanities of the University of Coimbra, the Lyceum Institute, the Deely Project, Saint Vincent College, the Iranian Society for Phenomenology at the Iranian Political Science Association, the International Association for Semiotics of Space and Time, the Institute for Scientific Information on Social Sciences of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the Semiotic Society of America, the American Maritain Association, the International Association for Semiotic Studies, the International Society for Biosemiotic Studies, the International Center for Semiotics and Intercultural Dialogue, Moscow State Academic University for the Humanities and the Mansarda Acesa with the support of the FCT - Foundation for Science and Technology, I.P., of the Ministry of Science, Technology and Higher Education of the Government of Portugal under the UID/FIL/00010/2020 project. *** Jamin Pelkey is Associate Professor and Program Director in the Department of Languages, Literatures and Cultures at Ryerson University, Toronto, where he is also an active faculty member in the Ryerson-York graduate program in Communication & Culture. He serves as Co-Editor of Semiotica, Vice President of the International Association for Cognitive Semiotics, and executive board member for the International Cognitive Linguistics Association, the International Society for Biosemiotic Studies, and the Semiotic Society of America. Jamin’s research explores semiotic dimensions of language evolution and embodied cognition. He is the recipient of the 2017 Mouton d’Or Award for best article in Semiotica and has edited or co-edited twelve collections in linguistics, anthropology, and semiotics, including Tropological Thought and Action (2022), Cognitive Semiotics (2019), Applied Brand Semiotics (2018), Archaeology of Concepts (2018), Sociohistorical Linguistics in Southeast Asia (2017), Virtual Identities (2016), and The Semiotics of Paradox (2015). His authored books include Dialectology as Dialectic (2011) and The Semiotics of X (2017). He is currently editing Bloomsbury Semiotics, a major reference work in four volumes. *** Charbel N. El-Hani is full professor in the Institute of Biology, Federal University of Bahia, Brazil. Coordinator of the LEFHBio - History, Philosophy, and Biology Teaching Lab and the INCT IN-TREE - National Institute of Science and Technology in Interdisciplinary and Transdisciplinary Studies in Ecology and Evolution. Between January 2020 and July 2021, he was visiting researcher at the CES - Centre for Social Studies of the University of Coimbra, Portugal. He works in the areas of philosophy of biology, ecology, ethnobiology and science education research. *** Homepage: https://www.uc.pt/fluc/uidief/io2s Auditorium: https://www.uc.pt/fluc/uidief/io2s/auditorium *** Technical support assured by Robert Junqueira. The cover image for the video was designed by Zahra Soltani.

Additional file 1: Supplementary Material.

Este artigo relata os resultados de uma análise de conteúdo comparativa de três livros didáticos de biologia evolutiva e três livros didáticos de zoologia de vertebrados, muito adotados nos cursos de formação superior de biologia de diversas universidades de países de línguas latinas e anglosaxônicas. Usando técnicas de análise de conteúdo, realizamos uma análise documental quali-quantitativa dos livros, com o objetivo de investigar a abordagem e recontextualização de conteúdos relativos à biologia evolutiva do desenvolvimento (evo-devo) e ao pluralismo de processos. Os nossos achados indicam que, nos livros de ambas as disciplinas, a recontextualização dos conteúdos vinculados ao pluralismo de processos ainda está em fase inicial, ainda que num estágio mais avançado nos livros de biologia evolutiva. Quanto aos conteúdos de evo-devo, a recontextualização já teve lugar de modo mais extensivo, particularmente nos livros de zoologia de vertebrados. Estes resultados mostram diferenças na construção do discurso pedagógico relacionadas com a estrutura do conhecimento acadêmico e os alvos da pesquisa nestas duas disciplinas. This paper reports the results of a comparative content analysis of three evolutionary biology and three vertebrate zoology textbooks, widely adopted in higher education biology courses in many universities of Latin and Anglo-Saxon countries. Using techniques of content analysis, we performed a quali-quantitative documentary analysis of the textbooks, aiming at investigating the treatment and recontextualization of contents related to evolutionary developmental biology (evo-devo) and process pluralism. Our findings indicate that the recontextualization of contents associated with process pluralism is still in an initial phase in textbooks of both disciplines, even though in a more advanced stage in evolutionary biology textbooks. Regarding evo-devo contents, recontextualization has already taken place in a more extensive manner, particularly in vertebrate zoology textbooks. These results show differences in the construction of pedagogical discourse related to the structure of academic knowledge and the research targets in these disciplines.

A partir do pressuposto de que o ensino tradicional, na educação científica, é insuficiente para uma aprendizagem integrada de conteúdos relevantes em direção a uma adequada ação social cidadã, defendemos que estratégias pedagógicas com base na Aprendizagem Baseada em Problemas (ABP) podem contribuir para a formação de cidadãos responsáveis no âmbito social e ambiental, ao fornecer um ambiente amplo de aprendizagem e ao promover o desenvolvimento de conteúdos conceituais, procedimentais e atitudinais. Neste artigo, discutimos características de duas estratégias da ABP (resolução de caso e sessões tutoriais) como meio de aproximar a aprendizagem de diferentes conteúdos dos desafios da realidade cotidiana da sociedade contemporânea e favorecer tomadas de decisão que sejam socialmente responsáveis. Apontamos, também, algumas limitações e desafios para o uso dessas estratégias na educação científica.

International audience; In this paper we present the development and validation a comprehensive questionnaire to assess college students' knowledge about modern genetics and genomics, their belief in genetic determinism, and their attitudes towards applications of modern genetics and geno-mic-based technologies. Written in everyday language with minimal jargon, the Public Understanding and Attitudes towards Genetics and Genomics (PUGGS) questionnaire is intended for use in research on science education and public understanding of science, as a means to investigate relationships between knowledge, determinism and attitudes about modern genetics, which are to date little understood. We developed a set of core ideas and initial items from reviewing the scientific literature on genetics and previous studies on public and student knowledge and attitudes about genetics. Seventeen international experts from different fields (e.g., genetics, education, philosophy of science) reviewed the initial items and their feedback was used to revise the questionnaire. We validated the questionnaire in two pilot tests with samples of university freshmen students. The final questionnaire contains 45 items, including both multiple choice and Likert scale response formats. Cronbach alpha showed good reliability for each section of the questionnaire. In conclusion, the PUGGS questionnaire is a reliable tool for investigating public understanding and attitudes towards modern genetics and genomic-based technologies.

This qualitative study, based on critical theory and on research design methodology, aimed toassess the use of socio-scientific issues as a teaching strategy that encourages the mobilization of conceptual, procedural and attitudinal content. It was conducted on Biology university students, through a teaching sequence focusing on Ecology, Evolution and Ethics. Data was collected through questionnaires, daily records of field observations and audio records of group presentations, in which participants attempted to solve three cases on socio-scientific issues related to Monoculture, Antibiotics and Pollination. Data was analyzed through content analysis, where the learning goals constituted the categories, following references Ecology, Evolution and Ethics. From this study, we comprehended the potential of socio-scientific issues in facilitating the mobilization of conceptual, procedural and attitudinal contents in university Biology. The study also demonstrated their importance in the training of citizens for socio-political action taking, since this didactic strategy stimulates students to assume an active role in addressing social and environmental problems. Finally, we believe that the inclusion of ethical and political aspects in the discussion of Science-TechnologySociety-Environment relationships, within Science education, is an important challenge.&nbsp, Esta investigación cualitativa, basada en la teoría crítica y en la metodología de diseño de la investigación, ha sido ejecutada con el objetivo de evaluar el uso de cuestiones socio-científicas como una estrategia de enseñanza que fomenta la movilización de dimensiones conceptuales, procedimentales y actitudinales de los contenidos, por los estudiantes de educación superior en biología, en una secuencia de enseñanza que involucra la ecología, la evolución y la ética. La recolección de datos se llevó a cabo a partir de cuestionarios, anotaciones en diario de observación de campo y registros de audio de las presentaciones de grupo en la resolución de tres casos de cuestiones socio-científicas relacionadas con monocultivos, los antibióticos y la polinización. Los datos fueron sometidos a un análisis de contenido, teniendo en cuenta las categorías de los objetivos de aprendizaje, basados en referencias acerca de la ecología, la evolución y la ética. A partir de este estudio, nos dimos cuenta del potencial de las cuestiones socio-científicas para facilitar la movilización de los contenidos conceptuales, procedimentales y actitudinales en la educación superior en la biología y la formación de los ciudadanos para la acción socio-política, ya que estimulan a los estudiantes a tomar un papel activo en abordar los problemas sociales y ambientales. También se pretende discutir que la inclusión de los aspectos de la ética y la política en la discusión de las relaciones Ciencia-Tecnología-Sociedad-Ambiente en la educación científica, genera muchos desafíos importantes., A presente investigação qualitativa, fundamentada na teoria crítica e na metodologia do design research, buscou avaliar o uso de questões sociocientíficas como estratégia de ensino que favoreça a mobilização de dimensões conceituais, procedimentais e atitudinais dos conteúdos por estudantes do ensino superior de biologia, em uma sequência didática envolvendo ecologia, evolução e ética. A coleta de dados foi realizada a partir de aplicação de questionários, registro diário de observação de campo e registros de áudio das apresentações dos grupos na resolução de três casos sobre questões sociocientíficas relacionadas à monocultura, aos antibióticos e à polinização. Os dados foram analisados com base na análise de conteúdo, considerando como categorias os objetivos de aprendizagem, fundamentados em referenciais sobre ecologia, evolução e ética. A partir desse estudo, percebemos o potencial das questões sociocientíficas para favorecer a mobilização de conteúdos conceituais, procedimentais e atitudinais no ensino superior de biologia, e a formação de cidadãos para a ação sociopolítica, uma vez que estimulam os estudantes a assumirem um papel ativo na resolução de problemas socioambientais. Também apontamos como desafio a inserção de aspectos de ética e política na discussão das relações ciência-tecnologia-sociedadeambiente na educação científica.