New Perspectives in Science Education

Applied theoretical problem solving (PS) in science education is considered as a source of difficulties for many students and a consequently an important challenge for teachers. We argue the activity of PS in science can be considered as a modeling process in its essence. Recent studies highlighted a link between inhibitory control processes and students’ difficulties during the PS. However, we don’t know a lot about the epistemology of this link and how inhibitory control influences the modelling process of PS. Moreover, in science education, several models of PS have been proposed by researchers in science education and mathematics education. These models identify a number of difficulties encountered by students in PS. However, to our knowledge, these models do not integrate neither students’ plurality of representations nor a dual process approach to reasoning.” We believe that the perspective of representational pluralism can offer new opportunities to a better understanding of the PS in science education.

Keywords: Problem solving, Modeling process, Science education, Inhibitory control, Representational pluralism, Dual process of reasoning

References

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