Encountering Counterintuitive Ideas

Abstract

Abstract This chapter provides evidence for a developmental learning progression, which can bridge the gap between everyday intuition and scientific reasoning about evolutionary change. First, it describes the learning principles that motivate a developmental learning progression and how they differ from those found in the learning progressions constructed by researchers working in formal education. The chapter then focuses on a developmental learning progression for biological evolution and details how children's and adults' intuitive theories about the natural world constrain their understanding of evolutionary theory, rendering it counterintuitive. The chapter then applies the proposed learning principles to children's and adults' emerging grasp of evolutionary theory and describe both age-related changes in children's and adults' reasoning and changes in reasoning following visits to informal science exhibits on evolution.

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