Epistemological difficulties in implementing a teaching-learning sequence on the concept of mass

Abstract In this work, we show the results from a research made in a curricular innovation situation, whose main focus was to assess the performance of a teacher which implemented a teaching sequence on the concept of mass. This process began by a revision of the concept of mass in three different frameworks, namely classical mechanics, electromagnetism and relativity, with the purpose of addressing the epistemological changes of the subject from Newtonian mechanics to relativity. This revision yielded a written material about the theme and was employed in the development of the teaching sequence, which had as main methodology the Design Based Research. Our main research focus concerns the performance of the implementer teacher and his appropriation of the underlying didactic intention. In order to assess how effectively this teacher did absorb the intentions of the course he delivered, we relied on Chevallard’s Didactic Transposition Theory. Data were extracted from recordings of the teacher’s classes and the subsequent analysis has shown that there may be a relation between the difficulties he had in conveying the didactic intention and the innovative character of the contents involved. Our results indicate that these difficulties are directly related with the very nature of scientific knowledge and, in fact, belong to the realm of epistemology.

摘要 本研究呈现了一项课程创新情境下的科研成果，核心目标为评估一名讲授“质量”概念教学序列的教师的教学表现。本次研究首先从经典力学、电磁学与相对论三个不同框架出发，对质量概念进行系统梳理，旨在阐释该学科从牛顿力学到相对论的认识论转向。本次梳理形成了关于该主题的书面材料，并被用于开发本次教学序列，本研究的核心方法论为设计型研究（Design Based Research）。本研究的核心关注点在于授课教师的教学表现，以及其对隐含教学意图的领会与践行。为评估该教师对所授课程教学意图的内化程度，本研究依托谢瓦利埃（Chevallard）的教学转位理论（Didactic Transposition Theory）。研究数据源自教师课堂录音，后续分析显示，教师在传递教学意图时遭遇的困难与所涉教学内容的创新性特征之间可能存在关联。本研究结果表明，此类困难与科学知识的本质直接相关，实则属于认识论范畴。