Formal climate education without consideration of the ocean is incomplete. The effectiveness of a new climate lesson for youth that includes the ocean-climate nexus was examined by delivering the lesson to nine classes situated in separate British Columbia, Canada public schools and assessing the students' understanding of basic climate concepts…

The purpose of this research was to study primary science students' conceptual development as it related to their understanding of materials and their properties: in particular, to determine how and why some students changed their concepts while others did not. The participants were thirty-two Grade 5 (10-11 year old) students. An instructional…

Why is conceptual change difficult yet possible? Ohlsson (2009/this issue) proposes that the answer can be found in the dynamics of resubsumption, or the process by which a domain of experience is resubsumed under an intuitive theory originally constructed to explain some other domain of experience. Here, it is argued that conceptual change is…

Recent accounts by cognitive scientists of factors affecting cognition imply the need to reconsider current dominant conceptual theories about science learning. These new accounts emphasize the role of context, embodied practices, and narrative-based representation rather than learners' cognitive constructs. In this paper we analyse data from a…

This paper argues that the metaphorical representation of concepts and the appropriation of language-based construals can be hypothesized as additional sources of conceptual change alongside those previously proposed. Analyses of construals implicit in the lay and scientific use of the noun "energy" from the perspective of the theory of conceptual…

The impulse to investigate the natural world is deeply rooted in our earliest childhood experiences. This notion has long guided researchers to uncover the cognitive mechanisms underlying the development of scientific reasoning in children. Until recently, however, research in cognitive development and education followed largely independent…

Discusses the process of the construction of entities following a social semiotic approach that enables the use of new analytical tools and describes the rhetoric used in construction. Based on an analysis of the historical formation of the notion of cells by scientists, and analysis of a lesson on the microscopic observation of onion cells.…

Finds that the construction of concept maps may help students make links between scientific concepts and related topic areas. Describes different methods of concept map analysis which illustrate different levels of conceptual development. (CCM)

Many educators may or may not be familiar with the term constructivism, but probably recognize it as something to do with learning. The main tenet of constructivist learning is that people construct their own understanding of the world and in turn, their own knowledge. This ERIC Digest examines the constructivist view of learning and how it…

This ERIC Digest concerns the constructed knowledge (also called nave knowledge or prior conceptions) held by students and the changes required to alter students' framework to understand and believe the true science concepts involved. This process is called conceptual change. Theoretical framework of conceptual change, what exactly is conceptual…

Cognitive conflict has been used as an effective teaching method since the 1980s, although the effects of this method are unclear. According to some researchers, cognitive conflict does not consistently lead to conceptual change. This paper describes a study investigating answers for the questions, What is the definition of cognitive conflict in…

Investigates the effects of learning material construction on concept learning while aiming for students to acquire the basic concepts of electricity and magnetism. Reports that concept learning of electricity and magnetism is influenced by the hierarchical structure of learning materials, not by sequence. (Contains 14 references.) (Author/YDS)

The results of a study of the meiosis models utilized by individuals at varying levels of expertise while reasoning about the process of meiosis are presented. Based on these results, the issues of sources of misconceptions/difficulties and the construction of a sound understanding of meiosis are discussed. Five individuals from each of three…

Suggests that students who reason with only concrete thinking patterns may become formal thinkers through the use of the following instructional pattern: (1) the introduction of an undifferentiated whole, (2) differentiation of the whole through concrete experiences, (3) invention of symbolic notation, (4) application of concepts which lead to…

Japanese and Thai kindergarten children were shown the same visual displays of moving objects and asked to compare the speed of those moving objects. The results significantly indicated that Thai children's concept of speed is further advanced than that of Japanese children. (MLH)