Promotion of Cultural Content Knowledge Through the Use of the History and Philosophy of Science

Historical excurse was suggested as a beneficial form of using the history and philosophy of science in the modules of learning materials developed within the History and Philosophy in Science Teaching project. The paper briefly describes the theoretical framework of the produced modules, addressing ontological and epistemological aspects of historical changes in physics knowledge with regard to several particular concepts relevant to school course of physics. It is argued that such excurses create Cultural Content Knowledge which improves the Pedagogical Content Knowledge in teachers and are appropriate to facilitate the meaningful learning by students. The modules illustrate the new aspect of the scientific knowledge not sufficiently addressed in the current science educational discourse-the constructive diachronic discourse that took place in the history. Historical excurse makes explicit the paradigmatic conceptual changes in physics knowledge and thus creates the space of learning in which the "correct" knowledge (type I) emerges in a discourse with the alternates (type II knowledge). Some of the previous conceptions show certain similarity to students' misconceptions which further motivates essential use of both types of scientific knowledge to support the meaningful learning of physics curriculum. The epistemological aspects of the developed materials illuminate the nature of scientific knowledge and its major features: objectiveness and cumulative nature. Teachers found the developed modules interesting, important but challenging their background and requiring special preparation.