Critical Features of Word Meaning as an Educational Tool in Learning and Teaching Natural Sciences

The educational challenge of polysemy of words used both in non-formal (every-day) and scientific formal languages is addressed. An analysing tool, the triadic approach, has been elaborated to make this kind of polysemy of words explicit by discerning three different sets of meaning: non-formal, a scientific quality and a physical quantity, respectively. The discernment process is a particular way of seeing the critical aspects of variation of meaning simultaneously connected to one and the same invariant word (symbol).