New Perspectives in Science Education

This paper explores the impact of philosophical didactics [1] on university engineering students encountering quantum phenomenology for the first time. This topic is particularly significant given the paradigm shift from classical to modern physics and the emergence of diverse interpretations [2]. To this end, a cross-sectional study with a qualitative approach was conducted, employing content analysis as its primary methodology. The study involved a group of twenty students and was supported by the theory of conceptual change [3] to foster the highest levels of critical thinking—analysis, synthesis, and evaluation—as outlined in Bloom's taxonomy [4]. A didactic sequence was developed, centered on Socratic debates that, while de-emphasizing mathematical methods, incorporated readings from popular science articles and expert video presentations. The evaluation instrument, designed by the authors and validated by subject matter experts, comprised twenty-one open-ended questions distributed across the ten sessions of the didactic sequence. The results obtained during the intervention conducted in 2024 indicate that the proposed strategy contributes to a gradual enhancement of analytical and synthetic skills. However, the findings are inconclusive with respect to improvements in evaluative skills