What is a dinosaur? Ideas and applications of the concept in different educational environments

Abstract

The doctoral thesis what is a dinosaur? Ideas and applications of the concept in different educational fields aims to make a diagnosis of the dinosaur concept taking into account various aspects and conceptual frameworks within the didactics of experimental sciences. Under a constructivist approach have been defined three general objectives designing individualized research with a theoretical and methodological framework itself. The first objective is to analyse and interpret the existing textual and graphical content on the concept dinosaur in a set of textbooks of the period LOGSE-LOE (1990-2010) (primary education, N = 74; compulsory secondary education, N = 105) within the context of formal education. The second focuses on characterize, analyze and interpret a selection of existing Internet content (web pages, N = 100), the first source of scientific information existing at present. And the third objective, the study of the previous ideas about the concept dinosaur in students of different levels and educational environments (primary education, N = 3.501; secondary education compulsory, post-compulsory, University, N = 279).