Professor André GIORDAN
The Research Centre for the Understanding and Teaching of Sciences, more commonly known under the French abbreviation L.D.E.S., was established in December 1980, the first in the world! It soon gained support and contributions from several swiss and international organisations such as FNRS, CNRS, UNESCO, UNEP, UNICEF, ALESCO, etc...
LDES activities concentrate on the different communication mechanisms of scientific knowledge in the fields of research, training and scientific popularisation. That work leads to the elaboration and evaluation of pedagogical strategies and teaching tools better adapted to the different publics of schools, universities, mass media and museums.
The impact of new technologies, as educative tools, is also studied, mainly through the production of Educative Multimedia applications.
Various institutions and private companies (such as UNESCO, Europe Council, ILO, WHO, CERN, DEC, Education and Research Ministries of France, Italy, Spain, Marocco, etc...) asked LDES for consulting on general scientific and technical communication problems but also on more specific items, for example Environmental Education and Multimedia Application Production.
Within the framework of the Geneva University's B.A. curriculum in educational sciences, L.D.E.S. proposes each year courses and seminars on the following topics:
LDES also organizes the now famous annual international symposium on scientific education which takes place in Chamonix, France.
In order to carry out all LDES activities, a certain number of collaborations at different levels have been established with international organizations, departments of foreign governments, non-governmental bodies, other universities or institutes for research and training.
LDES has coordinated for now over 10 years the CECSI network (Communication, Education et Culture Scientifique et Industrielle) which groups in 43 countries more than 2000 actors in the field of the scientific knowledge communication.
More than 30 books and 200 research papers were produced by the LDES people. Listed below are the main publications in which the research team was involved:
Université de Genève
LDES - FPSE
9, Route de Drize
CH - 1227 CAROUGE GENEVE
Tel: (41 22) 705 98 32 or 705 98 33
Fax : (41 22) 300 14 82
E-mail:
GIORDAN@UNI2A.UNIGE.CH