Abstract
For decades, research in conceptual change has shown that changing students' scientific knowledge is very difficult. The interpretations of researchers in this field are quite similar. That is, it is recognized that scientific concepts are abs tract, complex, and inconsistent with daily experiences. Therefore, many researchers developed various teaching strategies to promote students' learning in sciences. However, to some extent, students' concepts of some specific concepts in science (e.g., e lectricity, heat, diffusion, chemical equilibrium) have not been easily changed by instructional innovations (Chi, 1997). This raises some questions: Do we really understand the meaning and mechanism of conceptual change? What other factors should we cons ider when we implement teaching strategies for conceptual change that we did not initially take into account? In this paper, the author discusses several researchers' theories of conceptual change from different perspectives, and then compare similarities and differences between children's and scientists' conceptual change in the domain of science (e.g., Chi, 1992, 1997; Nersessian, 1989; Thagard, 1992; Vosniadou, 1994).
| Keywords: | conceptual change; ontology; incompatibility hypothesis |
|---|
[Chinese Version | Index | Chinese Journal of Science Education | Other Journals | Subscription form | Enquiry ]
Mail any comments and suggestions to
hkier-journal@cuhk.edu.hk .