Dr. Keith S. Taber
Publication:
Taber, K. S. (2000)
Multiple frameworks?: Evidence of manifold conceptions in individual
cognitive structure
International Journal of Science Education, 22 (4), pp.399-417
Abstract:
Some literature reports how learners' alternative ideas
in science may be coherent, stable and theory-like. However, other commentators
suggest that the available data supports the view that children's thinking
is inconsistent, with elicited notions being piecemeal, ad hoc and deeply
situated in specific contexts. This is considered to reflect the fragmentary
and unscientific nature of the learner's knowledge. Accumulating evidence
from in-depth work with individual learners is beginning to show that models
of cognitive structure that can usefully inform teaching may need to be more
complex than either of these views admit. Evidence from a case study is presented
to show how a learner may simultaneously hold several alternative explanatory
schemes, each of which is persistent over time and applied coherently across
a wide range of overlapping contexts. It is argued that the manifold nature
of learners' conceptions may be a key to modelling conceptual development.