Building bridges towards scientific thinking: potential dimensions to enrich research on precursor models

FANY GISELA ARRESE

Abstract

Science education faces the persistent challenge of inert knowledge, where students fail to mobilize what they have learned to interpret phenomena. Within this framework, the notion of the precursor model emerges as a didactic tool to manage the “unassimilability gap” between students' initial representations and school science models. This theoretical reflection article examines the productive tension between the psychodidactic and epistemodidactic perspectives, proposing an articulation that incorporates the social dimension of learning from the perspective of distributed cognition. It also suggests that teachers' management of these models can function as an analytical lens to make visible the configurations of teacher professional knowledge. Drawing on a case study with primary school teachers, it shows how these configurations enable different approaches to the model, shifting the unit of analysis towards the socio-cognitive dynamic and linking the precursor model with scientific literacy as a social practice. Finally, it outlines challenges for a research agenda that positions precursor models as a cross-cutting axis for teacher professional development and a transformative science education.

Keywords

Precursor models, physical sciences, scientific thinking, psychodidactic and epistemodidactic perspectives

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References

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.26220/mje.5619

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