Noción y práctica de la situación-problema en historia

This article presents the results of research in didactics of history underlining the homogeneity of social representations of those concerned with the act of learning in history: students, teachers, lessons and schoolbook documents. The case study is that of the Barbarians and Barbaric Invasions. The uniformity of representations creates a problem when teaching history in that the construction of new knowledge cannot take place without shattering the representations and initial conceptions of learners. How could teachers create learning situations which would help learners go beyond representations they all have in common? To what extent can the notion and the practice of problem-based learning allow the research in didactics of history to rejoin constructivism?