The regulation of epistemological obstacles in the learning of evolution

Abstract

• Epistemological obstacles are modes of reasoning that influence the learning of science. The pedagogical work on them implies the development of a metacognitive vigilance in order to pay attention to them each time a scientific model is constructed or used. In this work we will characterize the modes of regulation of the obstacles that arose during the development of a teaching sequence to teach evolution in three junior high school courses. In particular we will propose examples of the regulation of teleology, one of the most important obstacles for the teaching of biology. Starting from the construction of categories based on grounded theory, we distinguish three ways of regulating: a pointing out of the obstacle in students’ explanations, a complex individual regulation type and a complex social regulation type.