ABSTRACT
Perhaps spurred on by reform efforts such as the National Curriculum in the UK,
the National Research Council’s Standards (NRC 1996) and the American Associ-
ation for the Advancement of Science’s (AAAS 1989) Project 2061 in the USA, or
UNESCO’s Project 2000+ (1994), science educators have reopened a global
discussion about new directions in science education (Korean Educational Devel-
opment Institute [KEDI] 1997). Many nations are currently rethinking their needs
and priorities for school science in terms of ‘Science for All’. Some reformers have
targeted conceptual change as a focus for education change. However, the limited
success of the conceptual change movement, according to McTaggart (1991), is
due to its narrow superficiality grounded on psychological constructs. Others
suggest that contemporary work on conceptual change instruction should be
grounded on a social constructivist pedagogy (Werstch and Toma 1992).
