La narrazione e le storie nella didattica della scienza: il contributo della storia e della filosofia della scienza

For quite some time, many EU and Italian Ministry of Education official documents have warmly suggested the introduction of the history and the philosophy of science in the teaching of science disciplines at school. Accordingly, there is a shared agreement between pedagogists and science historians about the efficacy of this approach towards an understanding of the current curriculum content and the Nature of Science. There is also a lively debate about the different practical modalities that could be used for its introduction in class. What is missing, at least in Italy, is a concrete didactic research to show the validity of these declarations. This essay is a report of the real experience of introducing history and philosophy of science into junior and senior high school classrooms in Apulia (Italy). We relied on many schools for carrying out the historical-scientific teaching modules. The modules were carried out through the case study approach. In the first phase, the participating teachers were trained by University tutors on the modalities of this particular teaching approach. In the second phase, the teachers carried out the modules in their classes and finally these modules were presented in a conclusive conference. Moreover, we evaluated the efficacy of the intervention through specifically created questionnaires. These are the positive results of the research: the efficacy in the conveyance of the scientific contents, the openness of the learners (and the teachers) towards issues on the Nature of Science, the attainment of a more complex view of science and the student’s great enthusiasm in showing publicly the work done. Some criticalities: the extra time and work that the teachers were asked to devote to this research on the one hand for preparing the modules and on the other for the lack of ad hoc teaching aids. On this latter criticality we will devote our future efforts.