Epistemological perspectives on conceptual change: Implications for educational practice

Richard A. Duschl · Drew H. Gitomer

275 citations0/0 files storedJournal of Research in Science Teaching

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Science Education and Pedagogy Educational Theory and Curriculum Studies Educational Strategies and Epistemologies

Abstract

Abstract Frameworks that seek to understand how knowledge restructuring occurs and how to build a learning environment that facilitates this restructuring raise important philosophical, psychological and pedagogical questions and issues about how conceptual change occurs and what characteristics of knowledge growth ought to be a part of curricula and learning environments. Implicit in emphasizing the how is a shift in science educations' perspective from one that embraces “scientists' ways of knowing” as the dominant objective towards one that favors “positioning the learner for the next step.” This change in perspective and approach represents a radical and complex departure from common practice. This article advances a piecemeal model of the character and mechanism of restructuring and then describes a model of educational practice designed to facilitate this form of restructuring. We argue that a piecemeal developmental perspective of conceptual change would offer quite different criteria for deciding what to teach and how to teach. The adoption of conceptual change teaching models implies teacher empowerment of a kind we have yet to fully understand. Empowering teachers with appropriate philosophical and psychological models for the selection and the sequencing of instructional tasks would aid in their describing and prescribing effective or meaningful learning strategies. Central to this educational model is a broadened and integrated view of assessment and instruction that we are calling a portfolio culture. The essential characteristic of this culture is that it creates opportunities for teachers and students to confront and develop their scientific understanding and to equip students with the tools necessary to take increased responsibility for their own restructuring, to assess for themselves what might be the next steps.

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References

1989Situated Cognition and the Culture of Learning 1984Learning How to Learn 1982Accommodation of a scientific conception: Toward a theory of conceptual change 1970Falsification and the Methodology of Scientific Research Programmes 1976Falsification and the Methodology of Scientific Research Programmes 1985Conceptual Change in Childhood 1970Criticism and the Growth of Knowledge 1959Patterns of Discovery

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