Pensare e agire la prassi. Per una didattica dell'esperimento mentale

The thought experiment is a construct developed by the philosopher E. Mach (1905) in the early 20th century. It consists in the mental represen tation of a situation (not necessarily realistic) and of the consequences that occur in it when, always by mental way, some of its elements are mo dified. Although it occurs through paths that do not imply an immediate reference to experience, it does not qualify in purely abstract terms. Its dynamism, in fact, makes it possible to direct learning actions on aspects that are relevant for the acquisition of concepts, but that are not immedia tely deductible from experience. For these reasons, the mental experiment appears as a suitable device to rethink the relationship between theory and practice in the learning processes