Definitions built by Physics academics during the performance of historic thought experiments

ABSTRACT:

The current article presents partial results of a research that aims to discuss the potentiality of Thought Experiments (TEs) for meaningful learning in Physics. The main question of the investigation is given as: how do the cognitive elements mobilized by the students during the TEs in Physics can represent signs of meaningful learning? To answer this question, the article was structured with the results of the application of two teaching episodes involving historic TEs (Heisenberg gamma-ray microscope and “Schrödinger's cat”), together with academics in Physics. For the production of the data, materials written by the academics and video recordings of the established discussions were used. The results of the study, restrict to the analysis of one of the interventions held, made it possible to identify, before the proposal by the Meaningful Learning Theory, that the TEs reveal themselves as a potentially meaningful task for the construction of meanings by the participants.

Keywords:
Meaningful Learning Theory; Prioritization of meaning; Physics teaching