Conhecimentos Prévios na Educação Infantil: Contribuindo para a Aprendizagem Significativa.

This paper discusses issues relating to the valuation of students' previous knowledge to result in significant learning and it aims to investigate how teachers enable learning that values the students' previous knowledge in Infant Education. The theoretical approach is based on the assumptions of Piaget and Ausubel, and the qualitative research was conducted in a public school in a countryside city in the state of Mato Grosso do Sul, through the analysis of the Political-Pedagogical Project (PPP), observations in two kindergarten III groups and semi-structured interviews with the teachers of these classrooms. The results indicated that the PPP emphasizes the importance of considering students' previous knowledge and through observations and interviews it was established that teachers valued not only the educational content, but also the prior knowledge acquired through social interaction. When addressed a new subject, the teachers incited children to give examples and establish relationships with other knowledge already possessed. Thus, it was easier to understand the new subject as something not totally new, but as new informations that were becoming assimilated becoming meaningful to children. We conclude that, especially with children in Infant Education, it is very important the existence of a valuation of existing prior knowledge, in order to facilitate the learning process of the new subjects that will be covered by the school. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]