ABSTRACT
It could be argued that learning about biological evolution may be significantly different from learning about many other topics in high school biology. For many topics, students may be able to simply incorporate new ideas into their existing knowledge structures. This type of learning has been called
assimilation, accretion, addition, or weak restructuring (Chi, 1992; Rumelhart & Norman, 1981; Vosniadou & Brewer, 1987). As an example, students may readily add new knowledge about osmosis into their existing knowledge about water and membranes without much struggle.
