Point de vue sur l’évaluation des méthodes d’enseignement par la prise en compte des spécificités des savoirs

Abstract

This article highlights the importance of considering the specificities of knowledge when assessing the methods used to teach this knowledge. It is based on the importance of the epistemological dimension of didactics and on the history of science when it is problematized. This evaluation perspective is taken with caution, but it emphasizes the value of knowledge by giving priority to it in the evaluation of the effectiveness of teaching methods. At the conceptual level, we rely on the distinction between information and ability to consider two types of knowledge transmitted in school, as well as on the distinction between goal and method to show the need to consider the teaching goal of a method when assessing it. The chosen example concerns the teaching of the discontinuous nature of matter.