An investigation into the teaching practice at the university: epistemological obstacles and alternatives based on the General Constructivist Didactics

Abstract

The article is structured to show university teaching as a wide field of investigation, and to define the teaching practice as an object of study. In this way, the theoretical and methodological problem emerges as to what and how to observe the didactic dimension of the teaching practice, carrying out a discussion about General Didactics derived from the Theories of Learning and Specific Didactics founded on the epistemological specificity of each discipline. Faced with the difficulty of finding specific didactics for all disciplines that can be part of the formation of different professionals, which should be philosophically, epistemologically, theoretically and methodologically grounded, we propose to choose the General Constructivist Didactics as a theoretical and methodological alternative to fundament the investigation about the didactic aspect of the teaching practice. The article proceeds to a wide survey of the Positivist and Constructivist paradigms and of the didactics supported by each one of them, closing with a proposal for the elements and processes that characterize the General Constructivist Didactics.