The general/specific dialectic in light of the educational construct of epistemological obstacle

Abstract

This work proposes the epistemological obstacle as a teaching device focused
on knowledge, whose aim is to link general and specific aspects of
the cognitive process. In particular, the construct captures the intentional
character of knowledge by problematizing the relationship between the
epistemic practices of the subject and the object of knowledge that is constituted
through them. In the first part the problem is presented from an
epistemological and a didactic standpoint. Then the theoretical work hypotheses
are formulated. Finally we discuss about the didactic role assumed
by the concept of epistemological obstacle in the relationship between
naive and expert physics. This paper opens up new directions of empirical
research regarding the application of the concept of epistemological obstacle
to the different teaching disciplines.