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This paper presents the research methods developed to investigate the knowledge construction process of students and how they understand the concept of internal resistance as represented by the everyday situation in which an electric shower causes the light of a light bulb to dim when turned on. The theoretical framework for this study is based on the Piagetian genetic epistemology and the linear circuit theory. The methodology was developed based on a qualitative approach, using the multiple-case study strategy. The semi-structured interviews were inspired by and adapted from the Piagetian clinical method in order to identify and analyze the students’ explanations and associations regarding the theoretical model that explains the phenomenon. The goal is to make this paper available for teachers as a reference material and an encouragement to reflect about their own teaching practices so they can develop pedagogical actions to assist the students’ learning process in vocational courses on Electricity, Electronics and similar areas in both secondary and higher education. The paper provides detailed information about the development and improvement of the data collection tool, includes answers from the subjects interviewed, reflects on the method’s concerns and benefits to allow for the grasp of knowledge of other points of view, and, finally, discusses the possibilities of developing activities that are more interactive and forward-looking for the students.

After a review of the principles of the clinical method for relevant applications in educational issues, the paper focuses on the clinical observations of a case study centred on aggressive behaviour (bullying). The advanced clinical treatment enhances the importance of processes of mental representation and symbolization as necessary requisites for allowing the socially compatible satisfaction of individual needs. A case study is reported in order to better clarify the criteria and technical devices that must be applied in order to obtain positive results. We describe the aggressive behaviour of a three-year-old child of a particular family and educational environment. The child focused overt attacks on other persons, animals and objects. Play therapy sessions brought to light a typical lack of symbolic representation in drawing and play activities. We list and explain several technical interventions which helped this child to gradually develop these abilities, improving cognitive and social attitudes, reducing and elaborating aggressiveness. A relatively short course of therapy (7 months, a total of 50 sessions) enabled this boy to enter a path of normal development. We also discuss the school’s primary role in the prevention of aggressive behaviour with a specific didactic program for facilitating processes of mental representation and symbolization.

El diagnóstico médico es la base de una atención de calidad a nuestros pacientes. Se realizó una revisión de la literatura nacional y de algunos trabajos extranjeros sobre el método clínico, su importancia, bases, procedimientos y características fundamentales en la atención primaria, enfatizando en la morbilidad en ese nivel de atención, las peculiaridades de los problemas de salud allí atendidos, así como las estrategias a seguir para el diagnóstico. Se hacen las consideraciones finales sobre el tema, y se enfatiza que el uso adecuado del método clínico es el principal recurso que posee el médico para identificar los problemas de salud que enfrenta en la atención primaria.The medical diagnosis is the base of an appropriate care to our patients. A review of national literature and of some foreign papers on the clinical method was conducted, its significance, bases, procedures and major features in primary care emphasizing on the morbidity at that care level, the particular characteristics of the health problems approached, as well as the strategies to be followed for the diagnosis. The final considerations on this subject are made emphasizing that the appropriate use of clinical method is the main resource to count on the physician to identify the health problems faced in the primary care.