Dr. Keith S. Taber
Publication:
Taber, K. S. (Accepted for publication)
Conceptual resources for learning science: issues of transience
and grain-size in cognition and cognitive structure
International Journal of Science Education
Abstract:
Many studies into learners’ ideas in science have reported that
aspects of learners’ thinking can be represented in terms of entities described
in such terms as alternative conceptions or conceptual frameworks, which are
considered to describe relatively stable aspects of conceptual knowledge that
are represented in the learner’s memory and accessed in certain contexts.
Other researchers have suggested that learners’ ideas elicited in research
are often better understood as labile constructions formed in response to
probes and generated from more elementary conceptual resources (e.g. phenomenological
primitives or ‘p-prims’). This ‘knowledge-in-pieces perspective’ (largely
developed from studies of student thinking about physics topics), and the
‘alternative conceptions perspective’, suggest different pedagogic approaches.
The present paper discusses issues raised by this area of work. Firstly, a
model of cognition is considered within which the ‘knowledge-in-pieces’ and
‘alternative conceptions’ perspectives co-exist. Secondly, this model is
explored in terms of whether such a synthesis could offer fruitful insights
by considering some candidate p-prims from chemistry education. Finally, areas
for developing testable predictions are outlined, to show how such a model
can be a ‘refutable variant’ of a progressive research programme in learning
science.