ABSTRACT
Views of conceptual change that emerged during the cognitive revolution of the 1970s and 1980s described how students come to the learning situation with preconceived notions, naive conceptions, or misconceptions about the world around them. These existing conceptions can serve as scaffolds or as barriers when learning new concepts. Research on conceptual change from the science education and cognitive developmental psychology perspectives focused on detailing the structure of learners’ existing knowledge representations, and the means by which teachers and instructional methods might facilitate change in those conceptions (see for example, Schnotz, Vosniadou, & Carretero, 1999).
