Fostering Epistemological Vigilance in Physics Teacher Education: A Didactic Methodology Grounded in History of Science and the Notion of Hypotheses

Abstract This article presents a didactic proposal grounded in two theoretical studies and an exploratory case study, integrating elements from the History of Science and the notion of scientific hypotheses to support epistemological vigilance in science teacher education. Drawing on Lima and Heidemann’s conception of hypotheses and Chevallard’s Anthropological Theory of the Didactic (ATD), epistemological vigilance is understood as a professional teaching practice that enables teachers to critically examine how scientific knowledge is reconfigured for instruction, considering its origins, transformations, and relevance within a school context. The first theoretical study develops a historically informed analysis with a didactic orientation, based on a methodology centered on the identification of hypotheses, highlighting epistemic and disciplinary dimensions of scientific knowledge. The second theoretical study examines how ATD contributes to teacher education through the notion of praxeology, offering analytical tools to structure and reflect upon teaching practices. The exploratory case study investigates the conditions and constraints involved in implementing the proposed methodology within a physics teacher education program in Brazil. Designed for sustained use across a physics course, the methodology supports the development of epistemological vigilance by making explicit the epistemic structures underlying scientific knowledge and its didactic transposition.