Science Teaching and Learning: New Scenarios for Interaction between Teachers and Students

Abstract

Today’s universities are wrought with profound social and cultural changes that pose new alignments and problems that need to be included as subjects of analysis in educational agendas. University-level teaching practices have become an emerging field for didactic research, since it is there that interaction between teachers and students materializes in order to build knowledge together. In terms of its objective, this work is an invitation to reflect on certain aspects of university education, particularly in professional careers associated with the natural and experimental sciences, aspects that address both learning and pedagogical training for science teachers. To that end, the discussion begins with a description of these new scenarios for teaching and learning science in universities, and goes on to discuss the need for formal pedagogical training for this group of teachers. The article outlines several existing theoretical frameworks (teaching competences, didactic knowledge of content, scientific language) that are considered relevant when dealing with these new problems. It concludes by posing several questions that indicate possible paths for this incipient and fertile field of research; namely, the teaching of science in higher education.