This thesis explores the cultural beliefs and illness management practices of thirty diabetic patients who receive care at a Centro de Salud in Mazatlán, Sinaloa, Mexico. This is done through an International Studies and Medical Anthropology lens – one that is interdisciplinary and bridges theory and practice. Analysis of thirty semi-structured interviews with diabetic patients and semi-structured interviews with five staff members, conducted over ten weeks, contributes to our understanding of the tensions that arise between recommended illness management practices and the actual practices of patients. Explanatory Models of patients reveal beliefs that are rooted in biomedical and traditional Mexican cultural beliefs, while staffs perspectives are primarily rooted in biomedical beliefs. Recommendations are made for staff providing primary care, including the acknowledgement and incorporation of patients’ perspectives into care plans. Recommendations are also made for system level improvements to be implemented by the Mexican federal government.

Among Filipinos of lower SES 1/500 babies are born yearly with an orofacial cleft. This is one of the highest birth prevalence of orofacial clefting in the world. The main purpose of this study was to obtain contextual information prior to planning for community based health interventions in the Philippines regarding orofacial clefting. A descriptive ethnography was used to describe working class Filipinos' (including healthcare workers') current beliefs about the causes, prevention, and treatment of orofacial clefting, and vitamin taking practices during pregnancy. Modifications of Kleinman's explanatory models were made to include questions about people's general and personal beliefs about cause and prevention of cleft. Innovative methods were developed and used in field research and included an oral back translation method and double translation process. Filipinos reported the following explanations for cause of cleft inheritance, falls, cravings, environmental exposures, and God's will. Beliefs about prevention of cleft included limiting their number of children, being careful not to fall, and avoiding environmental exposures. Filipinos seek surgical repair as treatment for their cleft. Iron was the supplement women reported taking most often during pregnancy. Female participants reported that feeling better, cost of multivitamin, side effects, and bad smell and taste were reasons why they quit taking micronutrients before they had completed the recommended course. This study is the first to construct a Filipino explanatory model specifically for clefting. In constructing Filipino's explanatory model for clefting we found that people's general causal explanations for cleft were not always congruent with personal causal explanations, and people's causal explanations for cleft were not always congruent with their prevention explanations. Modifying Kleinman's explanatory models to include questions about general and personal explanations for cause of illness and questions about prevention should be used to educe a more complete explanatory model. Results from this research can be used to inform the design of health campaigns and/or possible vitamin trials. These campaigns could include but are not limited to developing information brochures and programs about the cause and prevention of clefting, or developing public health campaigns to promote the use of prenatal vitamins in women of childbearing age.

Syftet med denna studie är att belysa hur lärare beskriver sin undervisning av multiplikation i årskurs 1−3 och årskurs 4−6 när det kommer till introduktion, fortlöpande undervisning och tabellträning. Kvalitativa intervjuer med sex lärare har genomförts för att undersöka vilka mål de intervjuade lärarna har med sin multiplikationsundervisning samt hur lärarna beskriver innehållet i sin multiplikationsundervisning. Bakgrunden är att lärares uppfattning om vad multiplikation är samt vad multiplikationsundervisningen ska innehålla påverkar vilka lärandemöjligheter eleverna får. Detta innefattar val av förklaringsmodeller, arbetssätt samt lektionsinnehåll, vilket i högsta grad påverkar elevers förståelseutveckling av multiplikationsbegreppet. Att svenska lärare typiskt sett baserar sin undervisning på läromedel lyfts av forskning som en orsak till att svenska elevers taluppfattning och kunskap om aritmetik är svag. Lärare behöver därför komplettera läromedlens framställning av multiplikation i undervisningen. Studiens resultat visar att lärarnas mål med undervisningen berör områden som enligt läroplan och forskning är viktiga för elevers begreppsförståelse och procedurkunskap, men att viktiga bitar i undervisning verkar saknas. Detta berör undervisning om multiplikativa förklaringsmodeller, räknelagar och begrepp kopplade till multiplikation. Lärarnas undervisning om de grundläggande multiplikationstabellerna, där både strategier för att härleda tabellfakta samt drillövningar av dessa uppges ingå, verkar ligga i fas med vad forskning lyfter fram som viktigt för att uppnå automatisering av tabellerna. / The purpose of this study is to illustrate how teachers describe their multiplication teaching in grades 1−3 and 4−6 when it comes to the introduction, continuous teaching and table training. Qualitative interviews with six teachers have been conducted to examine what objectives the interviewed teachers have with their multiplication teaching and how they describe the contents of their multiplication teaching. The reason behind is that teachers’ perception of what multiplication means and their thoughts on what multiplication teaching should cover affects the learning opportunities pupils receive. This includes teachers’ choice of explanatory models, methods and lesson content which highly affects the pupils’ development of understanding regarding the concept of multiplication. The fact that Swedish teachers typically base their teaching on textbooks is indicated by research to be a contributing factor why Swedish pupils’ number sense and understanding of arithmetic is weak. Teachers therefore need to complement the presentations that textbooks contain regarding multiplication in teaching. The result of this study shows that teachers’ teaching objectives affects areas that the curriculum and research highlights as important for pupils’ conceptual understanding and procedural knowledge, but that important pieces seems to be missing in their teaching. These concerns the teaching about the multiplicative models of explanation, mathematical properties and concepts related to multiplication. However, teachers’ teaching about the basic multiplication facts, where both strategies to derive facts and drill exercises of facts is said to be included, seems to correspond largely with what research highlights as important in achieving automaticity in multiplication facts.

Models of memory in cognitive science and philosophy have traditionally explained human remembering in terms of storage and retrieval. This tendency has been entrenched by reliance on computationalist explanations over the course of the twentieth century; even research programs that eschew computationalism in name, or attempt the revision of traditional models, demonstrate tacit commitment to computationalist assumptions. It is assumed that memory must be stored by means of an isomorphic trace, that memory processes must divide into conceptually distinct systems and phases, and that human remembering consists in inner, cognitive processes that are implemented by distinct neural processes. This dissertation draws on recent empirical work, and on philosophical arguments from Ludwig Wittgenstein and others, to demonstrate that this latent computationalism in the study of memory is problematic, and that it can and should be eliminated. Cognitive psychologists studying memory have encountered numerous data in recent decades that belie archival models. In cognitive neuroscience, establishing the neural basis of storage and retrieval processes has proven elusive. A number of revised models on offer in memory science, that have taken these issues into account, fail to sufficiently extricate the archival framework. Several impasses in memory science are products of these underlying computationalist assumptions. Wittgenstein and other philosophers offer a number of arguments against the need for, and the efficacy of, the storage and retrieval of traces in human remembering. A study of these arguments clarifies the ways that these computationalist assumptions are presently impeding the science of memory, and provides ways forward in removing them. We can and should characterize and model human memory without invoking the storage and retrieval of traces. A range of work in connectionism, dynamical systems theory, and recent philosophical accounts of memory demonstrate how the science of memory can proceed without these assumptions, toward non-archival models of remembering.

This project describes and analyzes explanatory models of Chagas disease among people in a highly endemic area of eastern Bolivia, and examines the role that cultural and structural factors play in shaping explanatory models of this disease. Dressler (2001) characterizes medical anthropology as divided between two poles; the constructivist, which focuses on the "meaning and significance that events have for people," and the structuralist, which emphasizes the relationships between the components of a given society. This project endeavors to synthesize structuralist and constructivist perspectives by understanding the interaction between structural processes and explanatory models of Chagas disease. The research took place in the spring of 2013, in collaboration with the Centro Medico Humberto Parra, a non-profit clinic servicing low income populations in Palacios, Bolivia and surrounding communities. Semistructured interviews (n=68) and consensus analysis questionnaires (n=48) were administered to people dealing with Chagas disease, and free lists of possible treatments were collected. Overall, participants largely accepted the biomedical model, but also emphasized the emotional and social aspects of Chagas disease. The consensus analysis procedure indicated a clear shared model of Chagas disease, with coherent social, vector, symptoms, and ethnomedical domains. Furthermore, the model differed between groups based on ethnicity, gender, income and occupation. Significant differences were found in cultural knowledge of the disease based on community of residence and occupation status, two clear markers of how people are tied into the global economy. In the interviews, participants associate their Chagas disease with structural factors including poverty, rural living and traditional housing. They describe substantial barriers to getting biomedical care for their disease despite the existence of a free treatment program in Bolivia. However, participants reported numerous ethnomedical treatments; the study identified 39 ethnomedical treatments for Chagas disease and 66 for its cardiac symptoms. In sum, explanatory models include structural processes that shape disease, and are in turn influenced by these processes. In Bolivia, although structural constraints limit the scope of biomedical treatment, ethnomedical approaches to the disease are in a process of dynamic growth. The methods used here for assessing the structural component of the explanatory model of Chagas disease can be replicated in future research on explanatory models or political economy of health.

<p>Uppsatsen syftar till att förklara drivkrafterna bakom utvecklingen av den svenska ubåtsjaktförmågan under 1980-talet. Detta sker genom att utvecklingen studeras ur två olika perspektiv med avsikt att utröna vilket av dem som har bäst förklaringskraft. Perspektiven underbyggs av varsin statsvetenskaplig förklaringsmodell, som båda är hämtade från Graham Allisons <em>Essence of Decision. </em>Modellerna<em> </em>benämns i detta arbete det rationella aktörsperspektivet respektive det interna maktkampsperspektivet. Till vart och ett av perspektiven lämnar Allison ett antal rekommenderade frågeställningar och med hjälp av dessa utvecklas två analytiska nät. Näten används sedan för att söka igenom empirin för att skapa underlag för ett besvarande av studiens frågeställningar.</p><p>Studiens resultat är att det rationella maktkampsperspektivet, där betraktaren utgår från att Sverige agerade ändamålsenligt då hon utsattes för ett främmande undervattenshot och därför utvecklade ubåtsjaktförmågan, har goda möjligheter att på egen hand förklara det skedda. Däremot kan inte det interna maktkampsperspektivet, som utgår från att det var försvarsgrenarnas kamp om resurserna som var den egentliga drivkraften, ensamt förklara orsakerna till ubåtsjaktförmågeutvecklingen. Inte ens om perspektiven tillåts vara varandra komplementära kan någon positiv inverkan från det interna maktkampsperspektivet påvisas. Istället var det medvetna val grundade i viljan att upprätthålla den nationella suveräniteten som var drivkraften bakom utvecklingen av ubåtsjaktförmågan.</p> / <p>The present study aims to explain what where the driving forces behind the development of Swedish submarine hunting skills during the 1980s by studying the development from two different perspectives and ask which one of them has the best explanatory power. The approach is supported by two separate scientific explanations; rational actor and governmental politics, both of them taken from Graham Allison <em>Essence of Decision</em>. Allison supplies the researcher with a number of recommended questions to dwell upon when developing analytical networks to be drawn through the empirical study when creating a basis for answering the survey questions.</p><p>The result of the study is that the rational actor perspective, in which the viewer assumes that Sweden was acting rationally when subjected to an underwater threat and thus developed her ASW-capability has good possibility to explain the course of events. Arguments that the governmental politics perspective, which assumes that it was the struggle for resources between the different Swedish armed services alone was the real driving force behind the development of the ASW-capability, have however not been found. Even if the perspectives are allowed to be complementary to each other no real impact from the internal power struggle perspective can be confirmed. Hence the driving force behind the development was the deliberate choices based on a will to preserve the national sovereignty.</p>

Uppsatsen syftar till att förklara drivkrafterna bakom utvecklingen av den svenska ubåtsjaktförmågan under 1980-talet. Detta sker genom att utvecklingen studeras ur två olika perspektiv med avsikt att utröna vilket av dem som har bäst förklaringskraft. Perspektiven underbyggs av varsin statsvetenskaplig förklaringsmodell, som båda är hämtade från Graham Allisons Essence of Decision. Modellerna benämns i detta arbete det rationella aktörsperspektivet respektive det interna maktkampsperspektivet. Till vart och ett av perspektiven lämnar Allison ett antal rekommenderade frågeställningar och med hjälp av dessa utvecklas två analytiska nät. Näten används sedan för att söka igenom empirin för att skapa underlag för ett besvarande av studiens frågeställningar. Studiens resultat är att det rationella maktkampsperspektivet, där betraktaren utgår från att Sverige agerade ändamålsenligt då hon utsattes för ett främmande undervattenshot och därför utvecklade ubåtsjaktförmågan, har goda möjligheter att på egen hand förklara det skedda. Däremot kan inte det interna maktkampsperspektivet, som utgår från att det var försvarsgrenarnas kamp om resurserna som var den egentliga drivkraften, ensamt förklara orsakerna till ubåtsjaktförmågeutvecklingen. Inte ens om perspektiven tillåts vara varandra komplementära kan någon positiv inverkan från det interna maktkampsperspektivet påvisas. Istället var det medvetna val grundade i viljan att upprätthålla den nationella suveräniteten som var drivkraften bakom utvecklingen av ubåtsjaktförmågan. / The present study aims to explain what where the driving forces behind the development of Swedish submarine hunting skills during the 1980s by studying the development from two different perspectives and ask which one of them has the best explanatory power. The approach is supported by two separate scientific explanations; rational actor and governmental politics, both of them taken from Graham Allison Essence of Decision. Allison supplies the researcher with a number of recommended questions to dwell upon when developing analytical networks to be drawn through the empirical study when creating a basis for answering the survey questions. The result of the study is that the rational actor perspective, in which the viewer assumes that Sweden was acting rationally when subjected to an underwater threat and thus developed her ASW-capability has good possibility to explain the course of events. Arguments that the governmental politics perspective, which assumes that it was the struggle for resources between the different Swedish armed services alone was the real driving force behind the development of the ASW-capability, have however not been found. Even if the perspectives are allowed to be complementary to each other no real impact from the internal power struggle perspective can be confirmed. Hence the driving force behind the development was the deliberate choices based on a will to preserve the national sovereignty.

Stroke is the most common serious neurological condition worldwide. Members of the Black population are at an increased risk of suffering a stroke due to several risk factors which are more prevalent in this racial group. The purpose of this qualitative research study is to describe how African-Caribbean stroke survivors, who live in Canada, understand their illness and manage their care during the early recovery period. Eight participants who were of African-Caribbean origin who were living in Canada and recovering from a stroke were interviewed. Results of the study indicate that participants were not knowledgeable about the risk factors for stroke, they did not recognize the warning signs of a stroke as a medical emergency, and they did not always follow treatment regimes recommended by their physicians. Participants in the study described stroke as a catastrophic event, resulting in feelings of intense fear, being out of control, uncertainty, yearning for their old self, and feelings of detachment from their own body. Motivating factors in their recovery from stroke were the support of family, their own individual personal determination, and the acceptance of the illness by the participants. Nurses and physiotherapists were valued by the participants due to the role they played in improving their functional abilities. Participants expressed a desire for nurses to become knowledgeable about the African-Caribbean culture, in order to provide them with education pertaining to diet as well as steps they can take to reduce their risk of having another stroke. Responding to the care needs of this population will require individualized nursing care which considers the influence of culture on how the illness is perceived. / Thesis (Master, Nursing) -- Queen's University, 2010-04-30 09:59:56.286

Esta pesquisa ressalta as contribuicões da teoria piagetiana para o campo da aprendizagem em Física. Ela objetiva entender, mediante situacao experimental, como os sujeitos relacionam os conhecimentos da mecânica clássica de Newton com os conhecimentos da mecânica relativística de Einstein. Embora a análise tenha sido realizada com conceitos da Física, o relacionamento entre diferentes teorias científicas pode ser estendido para as mais variadas áreas de conhecimento. Utilizando-se o Método Clínico piagetiano, foram propostas aos sujeitos situacões passíveis de serem entendidas como conflitantes, com o intuito de que novos dados pudessem ser assimilados. Quando da incorporacao, pelos sujeitos da pesquisa, de dados novos ao modelo explicativo, sucederam-se três consequências: aumento em extensao do modelo explicativo; aumento em compreensao do modelo explicativo; extincao do modelo explicativo surgindo, com isso, a possibilidade de elaboracao de um novo modelo. Desde os sujeitos que buscam explicar os novos dados exclusivamente com o modelo newtoniano (Modelo M), passando pelos que diferenciam dois modelos explicativos ao mesmo tempo em que distinguem duas realidades (Modelos M – Modelo M'), até os que relacionam os dois modelos explicativos por meio de uma totalidade que permite compreender o grau de generalizacao de cada modelo (Modelos M ↔ Modelo M'), o papel da novidade produzida por eles tornou-se evidente. A análise dos dados coletados para esta tese indica que a consciência da evolucao das teorias científicas, bem como suas possíveis relacões, é ponto de chegada de um longo processo que comeca por diferenciar, antes de relacionar, dois modelos explicativos. A emergência de um novo modelo surge no momento em que o modelo vigente nao mais consegue explicar situacões novas, integrar novos dados. A dificuldade de o sujeito compreender as causas da nao aplicabilidade do modelo vigente às novas situacões é o ponto de partida para sua reconstrucao ou até para a construcao de um novo modelo. Essa ideia se opõe a muitas metodologias de ensino utilizadas em sala de aula que consideram o aluno um receptáculo passivo destinado à aceitacao acrítica de teorias. As conclusões desta tese permitem, no âmbito educacional, uma reflexao sobre como deveria ser a abordagem da evolucao de teorias científicas em sala de aula e a sua importância para o avanco das ciências. / This survey enhances the contributions of piagetian theory to the learning field of Physics. In an experimental situation, it aims an understanding on how individuals associate knowledge of classical newtonian mechanics with the knowledge of Einstein’s relativistic mechanics. Even though the analysis has been carried out with concepts of Physics, the relationship between distinct scientific theories can be understood for the most diverse fields of knowledge. Using the Piagetian Clinical Method, situations that could be understood as conflicting were proposed to the individuals with the purpose that new data could be assimilated. When the subjects of the survey internalized the new data of the explanatory model, there was a succession of three consequences: an increase in the extent of the explanatory model; an increase in understanding the explanatory model; extinction of the explanatory model arising, from that, the possibility of elaborating a new model. From the subjects in a search of explaining the new data with the newtonian model exclusively (M Model), through the ones that distinguish two explanatory models at the same time they recognize two realities (M Models –M' Model), and to the ones that connect the two explanatory models by means of a wholeness which allows the understanding of the extent of generalization of each model (M Models ↔ M' Model), the role of the novelty produced by them became evident. The analysis of the collected data to this thesis indicates that the awareness of the evolution of scientific theories and their possible relations are arrival point of a long process that starts in distinguish, before association, two explanatory models. The emergency of a new model arises when the current model cannot explain anymore new situations or integrate new data. The difficulty of the subject in understanding the causes of the non-applicability of the current model to the new situations is a starting point for the reconstruction or the construction of a new model. This idea opposes to a variety of methodologies of teaching used in classroom that consider the student a passive receptacle with no criticism to theories. The conclusions of this thesis allow, in the learning environment, discussion on how should be done the approach of the evolution of scientific theories in classroom and its importance to the progress of sciences. / Esta pesquisa resalta las contribuciones de la teoría piagetiana para el campo de aprendizaje en Física. Ella objetiva entender, mediante la situacion experimental, como los sujetos relacionan los conocimientos de la mecánica clásica de Newton con los conocimientos de la mecánica relativista de Einstein. Aunque el análisis se haya realizado con los conceptos de la Física, la relacion entre distintas teorías científicas puede extenderse para las más variadas áreas de conocimiento. Utilizándose el Método Clínico piagetiano, fueran propuestas a los sujetos situaciones pasibles de ser entendidas como conflictivas, con el objetivo de que nuevos datos se puedan asimilar. Cuando da incorporacion, por los sujetos de la investigacion, de nuevos datos de modelo explicativo, se sucederán tres consecuencias: aumento en extension del modelo explicativo, aumento en comprension del modelo explicativo; extincion del modelo explicativo surgiendo con eso, la posibilidad de elaboracion de un nuevo modelo. Desde los sujetos que buscan explicar los nuevos datos exclusivamente con el modelo newtoniano (Modelo M), pasando por los que se diferencian de los modelos explicativos al mismo tiempo en que se distinguen dos realidades (Modelos M – Modelo M'), hasta que los relacionen los dos modelos explicativos por medio de una totalidad que permite comprender el grado de generalizacion de cada modelo (Modelos M ↔ Modelo M'), el papel de la novedad producida por elles se convirtio evidente. El análisis de los datos colectados para esta tesis indica que la evolucion de las teorías científicas, bien como sus posibles relaciones, es el punto de llegada de un nuevo proceso que empieza por diferenciar, antes de relacionar, dos modelos explicativos. La emergencia de un nuevo modelo surge en el momento en que el modelo vigente no consigue más explicar situaciones nuevas, integrar datos nuevos. La dificultad del sujeto comprender las causas de la no aplicabilidad del modelo vigente a las nuevas situaciones es el punto de partida para su reconstruccion o hasta para la construccion de un nuevo modelo. Esa idea si opone a muchas metodologías de enseñanza utilizada en clase que considera el alumno un receptáculo pasivo a una aceptacion acrítica de las teorías. Las conclusiones de esta tesis permiten, en el ámbito educacional, una reflexion sobre como debería ser la abordaje de la evolucion de las teorías científicas en clase y su importancia para el avanzo de las ciencias.

Esta pesquisa ressalta as contribuicões da teoria piagetiana para o campo da aprendizagem em Física. Ela objetiva entender, mediante situacao experimental, como os sujeitos relacionam os conhecimentos da mecânica clássica de Newton com os conhecimentos da mecânica relativística de Einstein. Embora a análise tenha sido realizada com conceitos da Física, o relacionamento entre diferentes teorias científicas pode ser estendido para as mais variadas áreas de conhecimento. Utilizando-se o Método Clínico piagetiano, foram propostas aos sujeitos situacões passíveis de serem entendidas como conflitantes, com o intuito de que novos dados pudessem ser assimilados. Quando da incorporacao, pelos sujeitos da pesquisa, de dados novos ao modelo explicativo, sucederam-se três consequências: aumento em extensao do modelo explicativo; aumento em compreensao do modelo explicativo; extincao do modelo explicativo surgindo, com isso, a possibilidade de elaboracao de um novo modelo. Desde os sujeitos que buscam explicar os novos dados exclusivamente com o modelo newtoniano (Modelo M), passando pelos que diferenciam dois modelos explicativos ao mesmo tempo em que distinguem duas realidades (Modelos M – Modelo M'), até os que relacionam os dois modelos explicativos por meio de uma totalidade que permite compreender o grau de generalizacao de cada modelo (Modelos M ↔ Modelo M'), o papel da novidade produzida por eles tornou-se evidente. A análise dos dados coletados para esta tese indica que a consciência da evolucao das teorias científicas, bem como suas possíveis relacões, é ponto de chegada de um longo processo que comeca por diferenciar, antes de relacionar, dois modelos explicativos. A emergência de um novo modelo surge no momento em que o modelo vigente nao mais consegue explicar situacões novas, integrar novos dados. A dificuldade de o sujeito compreender as causas da nao aplicabilidade do modelo vigente às novas situacões é o ponto de partida para sua reconstrucao ou até para a construcao de um novo modelo. Essa ideia se opõe a muitas metodologias de ensino utilizadas em sala de aula que consideram o aluno um receptáculo passivo destinado à aceitacao acrítica de teorias. As conclusões desta tese permitem, no âmbito educacional, uma reflexao sobre como deveria ser a abordagem da evolucao de teorias científicas em sala de aula e a sua importância para o avanco das ciências. / This survey enhances the contributions of piagetian theory to the learning field of Physics. In an experimental situation, it aims an understanding on how individuals associate knowledge of classical newtonian mechanics with the knowledge of Einstein’s relativistic mechanics. Even though the analysis has been carried out with concepts of Physics, the relationship between distinct scientific theories can be understood for the most diverse fields of knowledge. Using the Piagetian Clinical Method, situations that could be understood as conflicting were proposed to the individuals with the purpose that new data could be assimilated. When the subjects of the survey internalized the new data of the explanatory model, there was a succession of three consequences: an increase in the extent of the explanatory model; an increase in understanding the explanatory model; extinction of the explanatory model arising, from that, the possibility of elaborating a new model. From the subjects in a search of explaining the new data with the newtonian model exclusively (M Model), through the ones that distinguish two explanatory models at the same time they recognize two realities (M Models –M' Model), and to the ones that connect the two explanatory models by means of a wholeness which allows the understanding of the extent of generalization of each model (M Models ↔ M' Model), the role of the novelty produced by them became evident. The analysis of the collected data to this thesis indicates that the awareness of the evolution of scientific theories and their possible relations are arrival point of a long process that starts in distinguish, before association, two explanatory models. The emergency of a new model arises when the current model cannot explain anymore new situations or integrate new data. The difficulty of the subject in understanding the causes of the non-applicability of the current model to the new situations is a starting point for the reconstruction or the construction of a new model. This idea opposes to a variety of methodologies of teaching used in classroom that consider the student a passive receptacle with no criticism to theories. The conclusions of this thesis allow, in the learning environment, discussion on how should be done the approach of the evolution of scientific theories in classroom and its importance to the progress of sciences. / Esta pesquisa resalta las contribuciones de la teoría piagetiana para el campo de aprendizaje en Física. Ella objetiva entender, mediante la situacion experimental, como los sujetos relacionan los conocimientos de la mecánica clásica de Newton con los conocimientos de la mecánica relativista de Einstein. Aunque el análisis se haya realizado con los conceptos de la Física, la relacion entre distintas teorías científicas puede extenderse para las más variadas áreas de conocimiento. Utilizándose el Método Clínico piagetiano, fueran propuestas a los sujetos situaciones pasibles de ser entendidas como conflictivas, con el objetivo de que nuevos datos se puedan asimilar. Cuando da incorporacion, por los sujetos de la investigacion, de nuevos datos de modelo explicativo, se sucederán tres consecuencias: aumento en extension del modelo explicativo, aumento en comprension del modelo explicativo; extincion del modelo explicativo surgiendo con eso, la posibilidad de elaboracion de un nuevo modelo. Desde los sujetos que buscan explicar los nuevos datos exclusivamente con el modelo newtoniano (Modelo M), pasando por los que se diferencian de los modelos explicativos al mismo tiempo en que se distinguen dos realidades (Modelos M – Modelo M'), hasta que los relacionen los dos modelos explicativos por medio de una totalidad que permite comprender el grado de generalizacion de cada modelo (Modelos M ↔ Modelo M'), el papel de la novedad producida por elles se convirtio evidente. El análisis de los datos colectados para esta tesis indica que la evolucion de las teorías científicas, bien como sus posibles relaciones, es el punto de llegada de un nuevo proceso que empieza por diferenciar, antes de relacionar, dos modelos explicativos. La emergencia de un nuevo modelo surge en el momento en que el modelo vigente no consigue más explicar situaciones nuevas, integrar datos nuevos. La dificultad del sujeto comprender las causas de la no aplicabilidad del modelo vigente a las nuevas situaciones es el punto de partida para su reconstruccion o hasta para la construccion de un nuevo modelo. Esa idea si opone a muchas metodologías de enseñanza utilizada en clase que considera el alumno un receptáculo pasivo a una aceptacion acrítica de las teorías. Las conclusiones de esta tesis permiten, en el ámbito educacional, una reflexion sobre como debería ser la abordaje de la evolucion de las teorías científicas en clase y su importancia para el avanzo de las ciencias.