ABSTRACT
This chapter is about how we shape the learning environment to aid communication. It follows a thread of argument that can be summarized as follows:
a our major concern is enabling youngsters’ conceptual change; b current theories of conceptual change require considerable self-exposure by
youngsters of their existing ideas. We have described this exposure in terms of the explication, expectation and exploration of youngsters’ conceptions;
c willingness to articulate and explore personal theories is dependent upon the learning environment prevailing in a classroom;
d the learning environment is created both by what a teacher says and the way that she/he behaves;
e youngsters are shrewd judges of behaviours which indicate trust, sympathy and empathy in teachers and prefer to work for and learn with teachers they trust;
f effective conceptual change requires that teachers become skilled in both the verbal and the non-verbal cues they initiate.
