The objective of this study was to investigate the effect of a socio-cognitive teaching strategy on young children. It tests their understanding of the factors that friction depends on when an object is projected across a horizontal surface. The study was conducted in three phases: pre-test, teaching intervention, and post-test. The sample consisted of 68 preschool children who were assigned to two groups according to age and cognitive ability, based on their responses to a pre-test. The children in the experimental group participated in activities that were approached from a socio-cognitive perspective while the children in the control group participated in the same activities but from a Piagetian perspective. A statistically significant difference was found (Mann-Whitney U-test), between the pre-test and the post-test, providing evidence for the effect of the socio-cognitive strategy on children's understanding of a 'precursor model' for the concept of friction.

The aim of this study was to explore the extent to which the characteristics of two teaching interventions can bring about cognitive progress in preschoolers with regard to the factors rolling friction depends on, when it is applied to an object that is freely rolling on a horizontal surface. The study was conducted in three phases: pre-test, teaching intervention, and post-test. Two teaching strategies were compared: one inspired by Piaget's theory (Piagetian approach) and one inspired by post-Piagetian and Vygotkian assumptions (socio-cognitive approach). A statistically significant difference was found between the pre-test and post-test, providing evidence that the socio-cognitive approach allows for the creation of a more appropriate teaching framework compared to the Piagetian one.

This article presents the results of a research project that investigated the extent to which the use of the historical episode of the Millikan-Ehrenhaft dispute over the existence of the elementary electric charge can improve students' conceptions of specific aspects of the Nature of Science (NOS). A teaching programme containing seven hourly teaching units was designed and implemented. The teaching intervention was designed on the basis of an explicit form of teaching that was integrated into the scientific content and through the use of short stories. Students' conceptions of specific aspects of NOS were documented in a questionnaire distributed before and after the class. The results showed that there was a significant statistical improvement in students' conceptions of the aspects of NOS that had been selected for teaching.

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When we refer to scientific knowledge, we, implicitly or explicitly, refer to its three components, namely its conceptual framework, its methodological principles and its cultural aspects. The pendulum is a topic of science teaching and learning where all three of these aspects can be examined with the aim of gaining a holistic appreciation of the transformation of a natural phenomenon into a phenomenon of the physical sciences and how this can then be recontextualized into a topic of school science learning. The main objective of this study is to examine whether this richness of the pendulum as a topic of teaching is revealed in the school science textbooks in Greece and Cyprus, for both primary and secondary education. We will use an analytical mapping instrument in order to determine, whether the pendulum is introduced at some grade level and, if so, in what context. We will then use an interpretive instrument, which relies on taxonomy of science curricula into traditional, innovative and constructivist programs, in order to attach meaning to the analysis. Finally, we will formulate a series of proposals in relation to the educational value of the simple pendulum at the Greek and Cypriot gymnasium level.

L'établissement de liens nécessaires entre l'enseignement scientifique et la didactique des sciences physiques nous conduit à étudier les conceptions des enseignants concernant différents aspects de l'enseignement des sciences physiques de manière qu'elles soient conscientes et utilisables, en même temps par l'enseignant et le chercheur. L'article présente une classification des programmes d'enseignement secondaire concernant l'énergie qui a été utilisée comme outil d'analyse et d'évaluation des conceptions des enseignants sur l'enseignement expérimental de l'énergie. Dans le cadre de cette nouvelle classification, nous distinguons trois types de programme : le "traditionel" où le concept d'énergie est dispersé dans plusieurs unités thématiques possédant une autonomie conceptuelle dans chacune de ces unités ; Vinnovatif où l'énergie constitue un élément organisateur du programme et le "constructiviste" qui prend en considération les représentations des élèves et les obstacles cognitifs à dépasser. Cette classification est appliquée à une étude des conceptions des enseignants scientifiques en formation qui planifient une série d'activités expérimentales concernant le concept d'énergie. Les résultats de notre étude nous conduisent à discuter l'intérêt de la classification comme moyen de communication entre l'enseignant scientifique et le chercheur en didactique des sciences physiques.