ABSTRACT
This chapter presents the author’s view of conceptual understanding as part of larger complex dynamics, focusing in particular on interactions with intuitive epistemology. It draws on the case of “Marya,” a college student who showed dramatic and evidently lasting progress in her first year physics course. Marya’s work and comments in interviews illustrate dynamics within and beyond the student as an individual, that need to be considered in models of knowledge and learning, and the nature of what had lasting value for her motivates the importance of instructional objectives and attention beyond conceptual change.
