Bento Cavadas (Author)
Alfred Wegener's work on continental drift profoundly influenced the development of geology during the twentieth century. The main objective of this historical research is to explore how Wegener's hypothesis about the origin of continents and oceans influenced Portuguese and Spanish science textbooks published in the twentieth century. For this purpose, a qualitative method based on the Chevallard's concept of didactic transposition was used. The didactic transposition of the fundamentals of continental drift, including displacements forces and geographical, geophysical, geological, paleontological, biological, and paleoclimatic arguments used by Wegener to support this hypothesis, was studied in a comprehensive sample of twenty science textbooks published after the publication of Die Entstehung der Kontinente und Ozeane (Wegener 1915). The analysis of textbooks shows that the didactic transposition of continental drift was commonly present in Portuguese and Spanish textbooks beginning in the 1930s, although, with different degrees of development. Science textbooks since the 1950s presented the displacement forces of sial continental blocks proposed by Wegener, namely the centrifugal force of Earth's rotation and the attractive gravitational force that results from the interaction of the earth with the moon and sun. The geographical, geological, paleontological and biological arguments supporting continental drift were commonly addressed in many science textbooks, followed by the paleoclimatic arguments. The geophysical arguments were briefly addressed in only two textbooks. Many Portuguese and Spanish textbooks also presented critiques of Wegener's work, mainly focused on the lack of explanation for the origin and nature of forces that could move continents at the Earth's surface.
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Article
Bento Cavadas;
(2021)
Plate tectonics in Portugese and Spanish science textbooks: From the 1960s to the 1980s
(/isis/citation/CBB678809466/)
Chapter
Grevsmühl, Sebastian Vincent;
(2008)
Das modellierte Antlitz der Erde. Zur Geschichte der Modellierungsstrategien der Kontinentalverschiebung
(/isis/citation/CBB001211728/)
Article
Stefano Furlani;
Daniele Musumeci;
(2020)
Were the Continents Drifting before Continental Drift? Domenico Lovisato and the Role of Wegener’s Precursors in the Theory of Continental Drift
(/isis/citation/CBB181085373/)
Article
García Cruz, Cándido Manuel;
(2003)
Más allá de la Geografía especulativa: Orígenes de la Deriva Continental
(/isis/citation/CBB000410594/)
Book
Mott T. Greene;
(2015)
Alfred Wegener: Science, Exploration, and the Theory of Continental Drift
(/isis/citation/CBB947952527/)
Article
Buffetaut, Eric;
(2003)
Continental Drift under the Third Reich
(/isis/citation/CBB000610215/)
Book
Mikanovskij, Evgenij Evgenjevič;
IAnshin, Aleksandr Leonidovich;
(2000)
Al'fred Vegener 1880--1930
(/isis/citation/CBB000358295/)
Article
Šešelja, Dunja;
Weber, Erik;
(2012)
Rationality and Irrationality in the History of Continental Drift: Was the Hypothesis of Continental Drift Worthy of Pursuit?
(/isis/citation/CBB001230577/)
Thesis
Fowler, Philip A.;
(2005)
The Longitudinal Treatment and Structure of Plate Tectonics in Introductory College-Level Physical Geology Textbooks: 1974--2005
(/isis/citation/CBB001561674/)
Article
Anduaga, Aitor;
(2010)
Crustal Layering, Simplicity, and the Oil Industry: The Alteration of an Epistemic Paradigm by a Commercial Environment
(/isis/citation/CBB001024227/)
Article
Creer, Kenneth;
Irving, Edward;
(2012)
Testing Continental Drift: Constructing the First Palaeomagnetic Path of Polar Wander (1954)
(/isis/citation/CBB001251735/)
Article
Català-Gorgues, Jesús Ignasi;
Carneiro, Ana;
(2010)
El projecte de la Carta Geològica d'Europa i l'establiment de relacions entre els serveis geològics d'Espanya i Portugal
(/isis/citation/CBB001021873/)
Chapter
Laura Franchini;
(2016)
Il centenario della pubblicazione di "La formazione dei continenti e degli oceani" e le ricerche di Alfred Wegener durante la Prima Guerra Mondiale
(/isis/citation/CBB298977240/)
Book
Frankel, Henry R;
(2012)
The Continental Drift Controversy
(/isis/citation/CBB001450168/)
Book
Suryakanthie Chetty;
(2021)
‘Africa Forms the Key’: Alex Du Toit and the History of Continental Drift
(/isis/citation/CBB455924853/)
Article
Andrew Hopkins;
(2021)
Overrating the exactitude: the role of Geodesy in Alfred Wegener’s arguments for Continental Drift
(/isis/citation/CBB540925176/)
Article
Coode, Alan M.;
(2011)
Part of the History of the Origin of Transform Faults
(/isis/citation/CBB001232531/)
Book
Oreskes, Naomi;
(2002)
Plate Tectonics: An Insider's History of the Modern Theory of the Earth
(/isis/citation/CBB000201617/)
Book
Powell, James Lawrence;
(2001)
Mysteries of Terra Firma: The Age and Evolution of the World
(/isis/citation/CBB000101768/)
Article
Oreskes, Naomi;
(2013)
Earth Science: How Plate Techtonics Clicked
(/isis/citation/CBB001320428/)
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