ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the concept formation, as the core of scientific understanding, where concepts are the carriers of meanings that allow the abstraction of commonalities across natural phenomena. Science is complex, and precise definitions of it are contentious, though it may be said to be about understanding the reality of the universe and constructing accurate knowledge of how it functions in terms of causal processes through observation and experimentation. As children become exposed to more formal science curricula, instruction takes over from everyday experience as the dominant context for development, and they enter a period of growth of increasingly detailed and refined concepts. The increasing interconnectivity underpinning the growth of knowledge networks may be supported by the formation of associative conceptual networks at a neurocognitive level, with language and other forms of symbolic representation serving as the bridging device.
