Several studies show that students experience more and more difficulties managing the measurements of electrical values in alternating current and that they have trouble making links between theory and practice. They find it difficult to give meaning to root mean square (RMS; or effective) values, which are not understood as average values and are…

One of the main problems in trying to understand quantum physics is the nature of the referent of quantum theory. This point is addressed in the official French curriculum in upper secondary school. Starting in 2012, after about 20 years of absence, quantum physics has returned to the national program. On the basis of the historical construction…

Educational phenomena and child development fascinate many disciplines for which they offer a tremendous field of experimentation and application. More than a hundred years ago, when educational sciences adopted the main institutional emblems of an academic discipline (chairs, diploma, laboratories, scientific network etc.), they obviously…

Examining the educational writings of three of the eighteenth-century's most innovative thinkers, the Abbe de Saint-Pierre, Morelly and Helvetius, this article challenges the currently accepted view that it was a belief in human pliability which gave rise to the contemporary groundbreaking faith in the power of education to improve society. The…

This article looks at the impact of Philippe Aries's classic "L'Enfant et la vie familiale sous l'ancien regime", published in 1960. His well-known idea of the emergence of "Le sentiment de l'enfance" caused a lively debate among historians and social scientists resulting in fundamental contributions to our knowledge about the…

Discusses the controversies about the copyright question by focusing on a case between France and Portugal in the 19th century. (PA)

States that in 1783 J. F. Zollner, a Berlin theologian, asked the question: "What is 'Enlightenment'?" Notes that the next year Immanuel Kant and Moses Mendelssohn gave definitions of the Enlightenment that are famous in the history of ideas. Analyzes and discusses the definitions through keywords such as reason, criticism, and…

The monitorial system of education was the most promising device in the field of primary education at the beginning of the nineteenth century. Its astonishing spread across the five continents represents one of the earliest processes of internationalization in the field of elementary schooling, which has rarely been analysed from the point of view…

French intellectual thought changed during the Napoleonic Era. The effects of the Enlightenment philosophers, the French Revolution, the Industrial Revolution, and Romanticism on the development of Napoleon's philosophical outlook are used to illustrate the changes occurring in France as a whole in the early nineteenth century. (AM)

Revolution did not spread to Germany from France at the end of the 18th century, yet the German and other European states were forced to come to terms with the principles of the French Revolution such as political and legal freedoms and national unity. Germany was affected by the French Revolution particularly by the reactions of German…

Since the classical authors of the nineteenth century, the explanation of macro-social phenomena has been considered as the essential epistemic achievement, hence the "raison d'etre," of comparative analysis in the social sciences. In practice, however, the claims of comparative social enquiry for providing convincing explanations are…

Discusses the ethnic dimension in French society and politics, proposing to place it within a larger, introductory curriculum in French civilization. Specifically describes the ethnic cleavage in this society and the evolution of the ethnic "idea" in the nation's social and intellectual history since the Revolution. (Author/MES)

During its own time, French Impressionism was viewed as a sweeping revolution in painting, a radical departure from the existing traditions of European art. Today, Impressionism is recognized as a major frontier in art history and the threshold of the modern art movement. In this article, the author discusses the development of the Impressionism…

The French Academy is the oldest of the scholarly societies of France. Its ideals and preferences of order, genius, and immortality have influenced the schools, conservatories, universities, and archives and the intellectual and artistic tastes of the time. Its foundation was laid by nine lettered, well-educated laymen and ecclesiastics around…

Analyzes the evolution of French culture during the last thirty years as a series of steps towards the acquisition of a second culture by the individual and by the whole civilization. Describes the dynamics of cultural change as a process of interaction and mutual enrichment involving the individual and the culture. (MES)