Abstract
We argue that science concepts are difficult to learn because they are embedded in different explanatory frameworks from those currently accepted by science. Students mechanically employ the usual enrichment mechanisms to add scientific information to existing but incompatible knowledge structures, destroying their coherence and creating internal inconsistency and misconceptions. We explain many misconceptions to be synthetic models resulting from implicit assimilatory processes through which new information is added onto existing but incompatible stored information in the knowledge base. Effective science instruction needs to deal with the problem of conceptual change. To do so, curricula and instruction needs to be designed to provide students with all information necessary to restructure their initial ontology, whilst also developing a more sophisticated epistemology and understanding of conceptual models. This type of instruction requires substantial sociocultural support.
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Vosniadou, S. (2012). Reframing the Classical Approach to Conceptual Change: Preconceptions, Misconceptions and Synthetic Models. In: Fraser, B., Tobin, K., McRobbie, C. (eds) Second International Handbook of Science Education. Springer International Handbooks of Education, vol 24. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-9041-7_10
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