A History of Conceptual Change Research

Abstract

ChangeFor the learning sciences, conceptual change is best defined by its relevance to instruction.Some topics seem systematically extremely difficult for students, and conventional methods of teaching usually fail.Topics at all age levels are affected, including, in physics: matter and density, Newtonian mechanics, electricity, and relativity; in biology: evolution and genetics. 1Conceptual change contrasts with less problematic learning, such as skill acquisition (learning a physical skill or an algorithm for long division) and acquisition of facts (such as "basic number facts" for addition or multiplication).If there are difficulties in these areas, they are for more apparent reasons such as sheer mass of learning or the necessity of practice to produce quick, error free performance.The name "conceptual change" embodies a first approximation of the primary difficulty: students must build new ideas in the context of old ones, hence the emphasis on "change" rather than on simple accumulation or (tabula rasa, or "blank slate") acquisition.Strong evidence exists that prior ideas constrain learning in many areas.The "conceptual" part of the conceptual change label must be treated less literally.Various theories locate the difficulty in such entities as "beliefs," "theories," or "ontologies," in addition to "concepts."Conceptual change is among the most central areas in the learning sciences for several reasons.First, many critically important ideas in science are affected by the challenges of problematic learning.Conceptual change also engages some of the deepest theoretical issues concerning learning.What is knowledge?When and why is it difficult to acquire?What is deep understanding; how can it be fostered?Conceptual change is important not only to education but also to developmental psychology, epistemology, and the history and philosophy of science.For example, how did Newton, Copernicus, and Darwin accomplish what they did?Conceptual change research is difficult to review.Problems (what changes; why is change difficult; how does it happen?)have led only slowly to solutions, and solutions have been tentative and partial.Many academic disciplines have examined conceptual change, resulting in a wide range of perspectives that can be hard to reconcile.There are no widely accepted, wellarticulated and tested theories.Instead, the field consists of multiple perspectives that combine many commonsense and theoretical ideas in kaleidoscopic fashion.In this chapter I highlight 1 The conceptual change paradigm is less often applied to other areas of science, and much less in mathematics.diSessa