AVALIAÇÃO DA FORMAÇÃO DE ECÓLOGOS MARINHOS NA GRADUAÇÃO: UM ESTUDO DE CASO NA UNIVERSIDADE FEDERAL DA BAHIA

Abstract

EVALUATION OF MARINE ECOLOGISTS FORMATION IN THE GRADUATION: A CASE
STUDY IN THE FEDERAL UNIVERSITY OF BAHIA. In many bachelor´s degree courses of Biological
Sciences, the undergraduate students have to produce a monograph. This work can be compare to an article
about a specific subject, so it can show the same deficiencies and qualities of a scientific article. Good
monographs can actually result in scientific papers. The present study aimed to diagnose the type and quality
of monographs done on Marine Ecology area in the Institute of Biology from University Federal of Bahia, Brazil, in the period 2002-2008 and to suggest ways of improvement. The evaluation included the theoretical
fundaments, the quality of the hypothesis, the experimental design, the statistical analyses and the coherence
of the conclusions. After analyzing 8 monographs, it was hypothesized that (1) the monographs quality would
increase with time; (2) at least half of monographs would not have an explicit and testable hypothesis; (3)
the statistical analyses made for at least 30% of the monographs would be inappropriate; (4) at least half of
monographs in their Discussion would not approach the ideas presents at Introduction; (5) the Conclusion
of at least 70% of monographs would be inappropriate; (6) at least 30% of the theoretical reference used in
the Introduction and Discussion would have low quality. The results showed that the quality of monographs
has not improved over the years. In addition, 7,3% of monographs presented an explicit testable hypothesis
and that 21,4% of monographs used statistical tests inappropriately. It was also verified that 92,7% of the
monographs did not discuss all the ideas presented at their Introduction and 31,7% of monographs did not
show an appropriate Conclusion. Finally, it was observed that 85,4% of monographs used at least 30% of
references with low or questionable quality (i.e. grey literature). It is proposed that an increased attention
should be given by lectures and supervisors regarding the importance of formulating good hypothesis, of good
experimental designs, appropriate use of statistical tools, considering all these points as an integrated process
for doing good science.
Keywords:  Monographs; logical science; hypothesis testing; experimental design; statistical tools.