History and Nature of Science in High School: Building Up Parameters to Guide Educational Materials and Strategies

Abstract

This article presents the main results of a research examining the didactic transposition of history and philosophy of science in high school level. the adaptation of history of science to this particular level, addressing some aspects of the nature of science aiming at the students' critical engagement, was analyzed by examining both the historiographic requirements of history of science and the pedagogical recommendations of science teaching. the research included the elaboration of a pilot course on the history of optics, with historical texts and educational activities, and its application in a high school. We used three episodes of the history of optics, addressing some epistemological points, especially criticizing the naive empirical-inductive view of science. It was possible to identify a series of obstacles in using history of science and conveying philosophical views. Their analysis resulted in devising strategies to surmount or to circumvent them. We implemented those strategies in the classroom and analyzed the data that was obtained. As a result, we substantiated several of our proposals and found that some solutions require improvement. We suggest some generalizations, which can be understood as initial parameters for guiding the use of history and philosophy of science in science teaching. We used a qualitative methodology of educational research to plan, to collect and to analyze the data, examining the interaction between students, teacher and knowledge.