Technologies and applications developed to assist and promote museum activities and cultural exhi... more Technologies and applications developed to assist and promote museum activities and cultural exhibitions have evolved significantly during the last decade, as has been proven by many works published in the scientific literature. This paper addresses a study developed with the specific purpose of understanding the possible knowledge-transfer outcomes of a digitization process meant to replicate original drawings by Leonardo da Vinci in the digital domain, allowing museums’ visitors to explore them as if they were manipulating the original artworks through custom interactive artifacts. A report is presented here to evaluate and investigate the didactic effectiveness of the fruition devices set up during a real exhibition, with a focus on the application dedicated to the drawing Study for the Adoration of the Magi, part of five artworks by Leonardo selected for exhibition during the reported event. The results encourage the adoption of this kind of technology for disseminating informat...
"In our Knowledge Society, the division of cognitive labor, the specialization of knowledge ... more "In our Knowledge Society, the division of cognitive labor, the specialization of knowledge and the brisk growth of new information and communication technologies provide a complex challenge for those tasked with selecting what is worth teaching and how to do it. The ease of access to information due to advanced and user-friendly technologies often gives us the illusion to know more than we actually do. This “epistemic disease” is a danger to both democracy and public health. The educational system must therefore encourage good epistemic habits consistent with responsible citizenship. From a didactic perspective, this requires updating the curriculum in the light of the educational challenge of the 21st century: making students aware of what knowledge is and what knowing means by fostering their epistemic cognition. Since epistemic cognition is concerned with the acquisition of a habitus, that is, a durable disposition to act in a certain way under certain circumstances (second-level curriculum objective), curriculum updating should not be reduced to a mere quantitative increase in the knowledge to be taught. On the contrary, this revision should address, on a qualitative level, how the selected disciplinary content is didactically transpose. In this contribution, we intend to propose some procedural principles – conceived as pragmatic patterns of behavior – that can help teachers design instructional activities consistent with the goal of promoting students’ epistemic cognition. These procedural principles will be formulated based on a conception of discipline as a correlated system of epistemic products and expert practices of knowledge construction, validation, evaluation and justification."
In this paper we discuss the potential effectiveness of the use of simulation models for the cons... more In this paper we discuss the potential effectiveness of the use of simulation models for the construction of counterfactual thought in training contexts. Counterfactual mental experiments represent an epistemic practice which belongs to the scientist’s habitus. Therefore, it is important for students to acquire it. In the first part the role of counterfactual mental experiments is presented from an epistemological standpoint. Then counterfactual reasoning is described as an epistemological obstacle. Finally, we explore the didactic potentialities of simulation models in fostering the development of counterfactual thought.
Introduction. The inclusion of students with disabilities in higher education is a fundamental ri... more Introduction. The inclusion of students with disabilities in higher education is a fundamental right recognised by the legal system since its recognition in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. However, the measures adopted by European countries to promote their incorporation are not always accompanied by parallel training actions that provide university professors with the necessary knowledge to incorporate people with intellectual disabilities into the classroom with the same guarantees and opportunities as people without intellectual disabilities. Objective. This paper aims to provide specific data on the self-perceived training needs of university teaching staff and thus lay the foundations for a specific training programme. Methods. A cross-sectional study was carried out by means of a survey designed to collect the teachers' perceptions of their own competences and the effectiveness of their knowledge, as well as the importance they att...
In the field of science education, color can provide an interdisciplinary learning content, poten... more In the field of science education, color can provide an interdisciplinary learning content, potentially suitable for overcoming disciplinary fragmentation and promoting in students a general attitude towards dealing with problems. However, because of its polysemic nature, it is very difficult to make students able to interpret, within the theoretical paradigm of modern science, a concept that they first learn to know through perceptual experience. As a pervasive phenomenon of our daily life, color vision gives rise, indeed, to a variety of naïve conceptions – similar to the pre-Newtonian ones – that act as a filter to the new learning contents. In this context we identified, through a historical-epistemological analysis, the ancient contrast between simple and compound colors as a source of potential misconceptions to be investigated empirically. We hypothesized we could detect some misconceptions due to the lack of awareness of the different contexts – physics, physiology of vision...
Il contributo propone l’ostacolo epistemologico come dispositivo didattico focalizzato sul sapere... more Il contributo propone l’ostacolo epistemologico come dispositivo didattico focalizzato sul sapere, finalizzato a coniugare aspetti generali e aspetti specifici del processo conoscitivo. In particolare, il costrutto coglie il carattere intenzionale della conoscenza problematizzando il rapporto tra le prassi epistemiche del soggetto e l’oggetto di sapere che attraverso di esse si costituisce. Nella prima parte si presenta il problema da un punto di vista epistemologico e didattico. Successivamente si formulano le ipotesi teoriche di lavoro. Infine si discute il ruolo didattico che il concetto di ostacolo epistemologico assume nel rapporto tra fisica ingenua e fisica esperta. Il contributo apre a nuove direzioni di ricerca empirica sull’applicazione del concetto di ostacolo epistemologico alle diverse discipline d’insegnamento.
We present a study on teacher education and, in particular, on Physics. Our assumption is that Ge... more We present a study on teacher education and, in particular, on Physics. Our assumption is that General Didactics and Disciplinary Didactic constitute two fundamental components of teachers’ professional development and therefore both must be used to interpret didactic phenomena adequately. This research involves a sample of 274 prospective teachers, enrolled in the Primary Education Sciences degrees in three Italian Universities (Milano Bicocca, Udine, Urbino,). It concerns the study of the spontaneous representations produced by students to foster understanding of the force concept and on the reasons given to motivate their effectiveness on an educational level and disciplinary one. The research tools and methods were developed by crossing the literature of General Didactics and Physics Education, identifying analytical categories that emerge from two different and complementary perspectives. In the broad spectrum of students’ conceptions, given by this double perspective, some asp...
We reflect specifically on the curriculum for bachelor’s level program in communication design. W... more We reflect specifically on the curriculum for bachelor’s level program in communication design. We propose a model of education which we define as “metadisciplinary” and which is grounded on the acquisition of competences rather than the acquisition of specific contents. Our objective is to show how a metadisciplinary didactic model can benefit from the weak epistemological status of the knowledge base of communication design. According to the idea that didactics can be treated as a science of design, we propose a model of educational design based on a metadisciplinary stance. First we describe two fundamental aspects of the model proposed: (1) the development of habitus of thought and action and (2) the distributed and collective nature of expert knowledge. Next, we discuss the notion of curriculum architecture. Finally, we describe a basic set of metadisciplinary competences that we have identified for students in the field of communication design.
Technologies and applications developed to assist and promote museum activities and cultural exhi... more Technologies and applications developed to assist and promote museum activities and cultural exhibitions have evolved significantly during the last decade, as has been proven by many works published in the scientific literature. This paper addresses a study developed with the specific purpose of understanding the possible knowledge-transfer outcomes of a digitization process meant to replicate original drawings by Leonardo da Vinci in the digital domain, allowing museums’ visitors to explore them as if they were manipulating the original artworks through custom interactive artifacts. A report is presented here to evaluate and investigate the didactic effectiveness of the fruition devices set up during a real exhibition, with a focus on the application dedicated to the drawing Study for the Adoration of the Magi, part of five artworks by Leonardo selected for exhibition during the reported event. The results encourage the adoption of this kind of technology for disseminating informat...
"In our Knowledge Society, the division of cognitive labor, the specialization of knowledge ... more "In our Knowledge Society, the division of cognitive labor, the specialization of knowledge and the brisk growth of new information and communication technologies provide a complex challenge for those tasked with selecting what is worth teaching and how to do it. The ease of access to information due to advanced and user-friendly technologies often gives us the illusion to know more than we actually do. This “epistemic disease” is a danger to both democracy and public health. The educational system must therefore encourage good epistemic habits consistent with responsible citizenship. From a didactic perspective, this requires updating the curriculum in the light of the educational challenge of the 21st century: making students aware of what knowledge is and what knowing means by fostering their epistemic cognition. Since epistemic cognition is concerned with the acquisition of a habitus, that is, a durable disposition to act in a certain way under certain circumstances (second-level curriculum objective), curriculum updating should not be reduced to a mere quantitative increase in the knowledge to be taught. On the contrary, this revision should address, on a qualitative level, how the selected disciplinary content is didactically transpose. In this contribution, we intend to propose some procedural principles – conceived as pragmatic patterns of behavior – that can help teachers design instructional activities consistent with the goal of promoting students’ epistemic cognition. These procedural principles will be formulated based on a conception of discipline as a correlated system of epistemic products and expert practices of knowledge construction, validation, evaluation and justification."
In this paper we discuss the potential effectiveness of the use of simulation models for the cons... more In this paper we discuss the potential effectiveness of the use of simulation models for the construction of counterfactual thought in training contexts. Counterfactual mental experiments represent an epistemic practice which belongs to the scientist’s habitus. Therefore, it is important for students to acquire it. In the first part the role of counterfactual mental experiments is presented from an epistemological standpoint. Then counterfactual reasoning is described as an epistemological obstacle. Finally, we explore the didactic potentialities of simulation models in fostering the development of counterfactual thought.
Introduction. The inclusion of students with disabilities in higher education is a fundamental ri... more Introduction. The inclusion of students with disabilities in higher education is a fundamental right recognised by the legal system since its recognition in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. However, the measures adopted by European countries to promote their incorporation are not always accompanied by parallel training actions that provide university professors with the necessary knowledge to incorporate people with intellectual disabilities into the classroom with the same guarantees and opportunities as people without intellectual disabilities. Objective. This paper aims to provide specific data on the self-perceived training needs of university teaching staff and thus lay the foundations for a specific training programme. Methods. A cross-sectional study was carried out by means of a survey designed to collect the teachers' perceptions of their own competences and the effectiveness of their knowledge, as well as the importance they att...
In the field of science education, color can provide an interdisciplinary learning content, poten... more In the field of science education, color can provide an interdisciplinary learning content, potentially suitable for overcoming disciplinary fragmentation and promoting in students a general attitude towards dealing with problems. However, because of its polysemic nature, it is very difficult to make students able to interpret, within the theoretical paradigm of modern science, a concept that they first learn to know through perceptual experience. As a pervasive phenomenon of our daily life, color vision gives rise, indeed, to a variety of naïve conceptions – similar to the pre-Newtonian ones – that act as a filter to the new learning contents. In this context we identified, through a historical-epistemological analysis, the ancient contrast between simple and compound colors as a source of potential misconceptions to be investigated empirically. We hypothesized we could detect some misconceptions due to the lack of awareness of the different contexts – physics, physiology of vision...
Il contributo propone l’ostacolo epistemologico come dispositivo didattico focalizzato sul sapere... more Il contributo propone l’ostacolo epistemologico come dispositivo didattico focalizzato sul sapere, finalizzato a coniugare aspetti generali e aspetti specifici del processo conoscitivo. In particolare, il costrutto coglie il carattere intenzionale della conoscenza problematizzando il rapporto tra le prassi epistemiche del soggetto e l’oggetto di sapere che attraverso di esse si costituisce. Nella prima parte si presenta il problema da un punto di vista epistemologico e didattico. Successivamente si formulano le ipotesi teoriche di lavoro. Infine si discute il ruolo didattico che il concetto di ostacolo epistemologico assume nel rapporto tra fisica ingenua e fisica esperta. Il contributo apre a nuove direzioni di ricerca empirica sull’applicazione del concetto di ostacolo epistemologico alle diverse discipline d’insegnamento.
We present a study on teacher education and, in particular, on Physics. Our assumption is that Ge... more We present a study on teacher education and, in particular, on Physics. Our assumption is that General Didactics and Disciplinary Didactic constitute two fundamental components of teachers’ professional development and therefore both must be used to interpret didactic phenomena adequately. This research involves a sample of 274 prospective teachers, enrolled in the Primary Education Sciences degrees in three Italian Universities (Milano Bicocca, Udine, Urbino,). It concerns the study of the spontaneous representations produced by students to foster understanding of the force concept and on the reasons given to motivate their effectiveness on an educational level and disciplinary one. The research tools and methods were developed by crossing the literature of General Didactics and Physics Education, identifying analytical categories that emerge from two different and complementary perspectives. In the broad spectrum of students’ conceptions, given by this double perspective, some asp...
We reflect specifically on the curriculum for bachelor’s level program in communication design. W... more We reflect specifically on the curriculum for bachelor’s level program in communication design. We propose a model of education which we define as “metadisciplinary” and which is grounded on the acquisition of competences rather than the acquisition of specific contents. Our objective is to show how a metadisciplinary didactic model can benefit from the weak epistemological status of the knowledge base of communication design. According to the idea that didactics can be treated as a science of design, we propose a model of educational design based on a metadisciplinary stance. First we describe two fundamental aspects of the model proposed: (1) the development of habitus of thought and action and (2) the distributed and collective nature of expert knowledge. Next, we discuss the notion of curriculum architecture. Finally, we describe a basic set of metadisciplinary competences that we have identified for students in the field of communication design.
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