Epistemological rupture in the discourse of high school teachers: The case of the atomic theories

Abstract

In this research, we will preview the historic development of atomic theories since the time of the Greek until our days. This survey will permit to put in evidence the epistemological ruptures in the perspective of Bachelard (1968) or the paradigmatic change notion in the perspective of Kuhn (1970) that marked the evolution of the atomic theories, since the “naïve” vision of the atom until the modern quantum vision. We will describe the atomic models from Dalton to Heisenberg while tempting to show that they are in logical discontinuity, since the ways of constructing knowledge, imagined by all, are not founded on the same epistemological premises. Besides, this survey of the different models will permit us, thereafter to characterize in the discourse of Quebec chemistry and physics teachers, the epistemological rupture notion in the development of atomic theories.