Abstract:
I have analysed understandings of what scientific concepts are and the didactic situations for the learning and teaching which can be inferred from them. In one of the interpretations those concepts are seen as labels which name sets of qualities or perceptible properties: objective data, facts found in the world around us. Conversely, there is the understanding that scientific concepts are nouns which share a flexible network of well founded and logical knowledge. Regarding the teaching and learning processes, I have identified that in the former interpretation there is an emphasis on the learning of definitions and the carrying out of experiments that highlight those properties which the concept defines; whereas, in the latter understanding, the focus is on the capacity to make sense of the information bearing in mind the context in which it is used.
Keywords:
scientific concepts; definitions; network of knowledge.