Epistemological and Psychological Fundamentals of the Didactics of Science

The Didactics of Science extends Didactics, as a discipline, beyond the pedagogical school frame. The models constructed in the last decades have aimed at supporting students in their learning process and preparing them for professional and social complex situations, related even to the cultural environment and family. In this respect, the curricular decisions do not refer only to the wider, general frame of applying Didactics to Mathematics as a discipline. The theoretical framework of the Didactics of Science epistemologically consists of a set of notions introduced by specialists in their analyses upon the Didactics of disciplines, by means of an assimilation process involving representation and clarification of concepts, as well as their articulation in theories and paradigms. The Didactics of Science pleads for a model in which the teacher acts as mediator between pedagogical sciences and the students’ psychological profile.