Didactics of science in Latin America

Abstract

It seems then a very appropriate moment to look back at our own academicfield (cf. Jenkins, 2000), which I will name with the technically precise label of“didactics of science” –coming from the ancient Greek verb didáskein, “to teach”.I will understand the didactics of science (and it should be noted here that “science”refers to natural or experimental sciences) as the scientific discipline “dealing withthe basic questions of why, what, and how to teach science to whom, in all itsaspects” (Lijnse, 2010: 128). I will prefer this nomenclature –very much extended,though not completely dominant, in our continent– in front of the usual term“science education”, much more employed in English, which has the ambiguity ofreferring both to practice and to research (Adúriz-Bravo, 1999/2000).