An Overview of Conceptual Change Theories.

By Gokhan Ozdemir, Douglas B. Clark. 2007

311 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Conceptual change researchers have made significant progress on two prominent but competing theoretical perspectives regarding knowledge structure coherence. These perspectives can be broadly characterized as (1) knowledge-as-theory perspectives and (2) knowledge-as-elements perspectives. These perspectives can be briefly summarized in terms of the following questions. Is a student’s knowledge most accurately represented as a coherent unified framework of theory-like character (e.g., Carey, 1999; Chi, 2005; Ioannides & Vosniadou, 2002; Wellman & Gelman, 1992)? Or is a student’s knowledge more aptly considered as an ecology of quasi-independent elements (e.g., Clark, 2006; diSessa, Gillespie, & Esterly, 2004; Harrison, Grayson, & Treagust, 1999; Linn, Eylon, & Davis, 2004)? In this review, we clarify these two theoretical perspectives and discuss the educational implications of each. This debate is important because these perspectives implicate radically different pathways for curricular design to help students reorganize their understandings. Historically, the research literature has predominantly supported knowledge-as-theory perspectives. After outlining both perspectives, this paper discusses arguments and educational implications that potentially favor the adoption of knowledgeas- elements perspectives

Subfields: Developmental and Educational Psychology, Education

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/f6f57f8f5338981fba0868cd922a0da02b6a14bd

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In Developmental and Educational Psychology

In Education

Citations in the corpus

The influences of text and reader characteristics on learning from refutations in science texts. (2013, background): “…d is no t to be di ss em in at ed br oa dl y. tations as new information is encountered, the theories differ in their views of the initial properties of prior knowledge, as discussed above, which in turn can be seen to affect the nature and scope of the revision process (Özdemir & Clark, 2007).”
Development of the Heat and Energy Concept Inventory: Preliminary Results on the Prevalence and Persistence of Engineering Students' Misconceptions (2012, background): “Bruning, Schraw, & Ronning (1999) surveyed a long-established body of educational and psychological research that examines how concepts are identified and acquired while Ozdemir & Clark (2007) provide a good overview of conceptual change theories.”