The direction and autonomy of interdisciplinary study and research paths in teacher education

This paper presents a case study of didactic infrastructures to direct Study and Research Paths (SRP) in teacher education within the context of interdisciplinary inquiry. The disciplines of school mathematics and school biology, and their didactics, are made to interconnect through the investigation of a generating question concerning the illness diabetes. The resulting interdisciplinary knowledge as evidenced through students written diaries is analysed using the Anthropologic Theory of the Didactic and shows the challenge of combining two disciplines and their didactics at the same time. Two particular forms of didactic infrastructure to guide the self-sustained process of SRP are proposed and scrutinized: Selective picking and Side questions. Selective picking is shown to be a promising, yet indirect, infrastructure to steer the SRP without taking away the desired autonomy of the students. Side questions, initially proposed by Ives Chevallard, are considered in light of the case, and a number of suggestions for their characteristics and use are put forward.