Chapter 11: The Changing Face of Conceptual Change Learning: An Emerging Sociocultural Approach

Learning and development are the universal experience of humans, and many approaches and theories have been proposed to describe, explain, analyze, and predict how, why, when, and what individuals learn. Conceptual change as a model of learning can trace its roots to at least two distinct traditions, namely science education and developmental psychology (Vosniadou, 1999). Science educators have traditionally viewed conceptual change as a process whereby initial student misconceptions are replaced by scientifically correct conceptions, and have often used, by way of analogy, the manner in which major revolutions in scientific thinking have occurred throughout history. As a consequence, specific teaching strategies have been purposely designed with the intention of fostering conceptual change learning within formal educational settings. Developmental psychologists have also focussed on misconceptions, but in general have studied the acquisition of knowledge and concomitant genesis of misconceptions, particularly in preschool age children. Within this tradition, considerable research has been directed towards elucidation of the mechanisms and explanations of the observed changes in conceptual understanding exhibited by children as they develop.