The verbal and imagery combination as a pedagogical expedient for approaches to the legacies of Graziela Barroso and Maria Merian

Abstract

We carried out an evaluation of the attitude that consists of using images as a pedagogically relevant cognitive tool for science teaching. We argue that the teachings of the various empirical sciences require, or may require, different degrees of abstraction. This is true even within the same science when we confront two or more of its branches. On the question of an image, even an image consolidated within a given branch of a given science, may or may not constitute an epistemological obstacle in some other of its branches, we would say that the complexity of the question does not give rise to a response that is universally unequivocal. We argue that the human mind can accommodate two or more paradigmatic representations - whether verbal, imagery, or hybrid - even if these give rise to controversy. Dirac's extreme position, which consists of the recommendation to avoid images, in the field of quantum mechanics, is confronted with the attitudes of two scientists from different eras in the field of life sciences, such as Graziela Barroso and Maria Merian. We conclude that the attitude that consists of making use of images does not constitute any epistemological obstacle when understanding is legitimately pursued in science teaching.