The specific epistemology of biology as an emerging discipline and its possible contribution to the didactics of biology.

Abstract

This paper argues in favor of the use of contents from the so-called specific epistemology of biology in the teaching of this discipline at different educational levels, with special emphasis on secondary school. The strategy of using selected episodes from the history of biology (e.g., those referring to the work of Pasteur and Darwin) to exemplify questions about the nature of science, although not yet widespread among teachers, has a long tradition in teaching. We say that this didactic strategy generally consists of the application of epistemological models related to biology. As opposed to it, we introduce the application of epistemological models walked in biology, and we provide examples available in the literature of biology didactics. It is argued here that this second type of models can be particularly powerful in improving the quality of biology learning by providing students with relevant answers to the fundamental epistemological question of what biologists do.