An insight into epistemological and didactic issues related with science teaching

Soft skills

Academic year 2020/2021

Sommario del corso

• Program
• Teaching tools

Program

The teaching will consist of 3 seminars to be held in distance mode in the following dates: April 8th, 15th and 27th (scheduled at 2.30 p.m. until 5.30 p.m.). It is addressed to PhD students of the Science and Innovative Technology School. The course will be delivered in English.

CONTENTS

April 8th 2021  (2.30 p.m. - 5.30 p.m.) - https://unito.webex.com/meet/elena.ghibaudi

The relationship between material reality and models in science education and in the experimental practice - Teacher: Elena Ghibaudi

Building up scientific knowledge implies an unceasing dialectic between the material world - which is the object of experimental investigations - and theories and models - that are formal constructions through which the material world is interpreted. The clarification of the relationships between empirical phenomena and formal systems that codify them (i.e. models) is a necessary premise to both teaching activity and experimental practice of any scientific discipline. There is strong evidence that this conceptual step is often overlooked or taken for granted in science teaching: such lack of attention contributes to make teaching ineffective. In fact, the message addressed to students is often misinterpreted, due to the lack of conceptual tools suitable for its decoding. This seminar will discuss the above-cited problems, with a special focus on the related educational aspects.

April 15th 2021 (2.30 p.m. - 5.30 p.m.) - https://unito.webex.com/meet/giuseppina.cerrato

Science teaching in the world: a comparison between European and American models - Teacher: Giuseppina Cerrato

Teaching practices, in particular those relative to scientific disciplines, among which Chemistry, proposed in schools and universities in Europe and the United States follow very different patterns: during the seminar some of the most common practices at world level will be thus presented, with particular attention to the Italian situation, as well as with some reference to the pedagogical models to which those practices are connected to.

April 27th 2021 (2.30 p.m. - 5.30 p.m.) - https://unito.webex.com/meet/elena.ghibaudi

Final discussion and evaluation: each students will be asked to shortly present a paper dealing with the topics of this course, previously assigned to him/her. These contents will be the object of an open discussion. Attendance to this seminar is compulsory as it has the value of final examination.

Class schedule

• Teaching materials
• Exams and finals
• Go to Moodle
• Visit the forums