Conceptual Change

Teaching Strategy

12/25/20 03:30 AM
What is Conceptual Change?
1. Posner et al. (1982), provided no formal
definition of conceptual change, but examples
of what it entails were given. A student's
conceptual ecology is key to the conceptual
change model because "without such concepts
it is impossible for the learner to ask a question
about the phenomenon, to know what would
count as an answer to the question, or to
distinguish relevant from irrelevant features of
the phenomenon"
2. Conceptual change is generally defined as
learning that changes an existing conception (i.e.,
belief, idea, or way of thinking).
Learning for conceptual change is not merely
accumulating new facts or learning a new skill.
With conceptual change, an existing conception is
fundamentally changed or even replaced, such
that it becomes the conceptual framework that
students use to solve problems, explain
phenomena, and function in their world.

other
 Planning for conceptual change

The model makes children aware of their

own level of conceptual understanding prior to
instruction and provides experiences for
individuals to question current beliefs, test
those beliefs and change to a new level of
understanding.

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 Conceptual change model

i. Being challenged: in response to a

challenge, students become aware of
their own beliefs about the topic.

ii. Sharing ideas: students expose their

personal beliefs by sharing them with
members of the class
iii. Exploring concepts: students work with
manipulative, testing their ideas and
exploring the concept

iv. Resolving conflicts: students work to

resolve conflicts between what they
discovered during exploration and their
previous beliefs.
v. Making connections: students make
connections between the newly learned
concepts and other parts of their lives

vi. Pursuing questions: students raise and

pursue their own questions reflecting
individual interest.
How Conceptual Change Occur?
• For conceptual change to occur, children
must become dissatisfied with their existing
conception.

• Their existing conception, believable on the

surface, must be shown to fail to explain some
new observation satisfactorily.

[Example]
Cognitive Conflict
 Cognitive disequilibration
• Dissatisfaction occur when what is actually
happen contrast with what ought to happen
• It is well call cognitive disequilibration
(piagetian term) or cognitive dissonance or
cognitive conflict
• The constructivist teacher seeks to induce
cognitive disequilibration by setting up
situations that encourage children to
question their existing beliefs and ask what
is going on.
• The children attempt to make prediction
about the situation based on prior
understanding
• When these predictions do not work, the
children will question the prior belief
• This brings the existing belief to surface,
giving the teacher access to what is in the
children mind
• This give the teacher the opportunities to
help the children reconstruct their beliefs in
valid way.
Implication for Classroom
Practice
On a practical level, Posner et al. (1982) listed
four conditions that foster accommodation in
student thinking:

1. There must be dissatisfaction with

existing conceptions
2. A new conception must be intelligible
3. A new conception must appear
initially plausible
4. A new concept should suggest the
possibility of a fruitful research
program.
 Advantage and disadvantage
• Advantage is that all normally developing children
have the capacity for conceptual change, and science
educators and cognitive scientists, working
collaboratively, are making very good progress at
understanding how to foster conceptual change in the
classroom.
• Conceptual change learning results in better conceptual
understanding by the students. Consistently evaluating
and clarifying conceptions helps students develop
better metaconceptual awareness, that is they come to
understand how they develop their beliefs (Vosniadou,
1994)
Disadvantage that conceptual change is
extremely difficult to achieve, for reasons
that have been understood at least since the
early writings of Kuhn (1962) and
Feyerabend (1962).
 Challenges ???
• Teaching for conceptual is not an easy process.
It requires more time than traditional, rote
teaching methods.
• It also requires a supportive classroom
environment in which students feel confident
in expressing and discussion ideas.
• Conceptual change requires the teacher have
good facilitation skills and a good
understanding of the topic or phenomenon in
question.
 Three factors must be achieved

1. The new conceptualizations must have

explanatory power

2. The new conceptualizations must have

predictive power

3. The new conceptualizations must have

convincing to other investigators.
 Conclusion

The conceptual change model is widely

accepted among science educators. Though
there are competing views of how
conceptual change occurs, there seems to be
no argument about whether conceptual
change occurs; it is central to learning in
science.
While theorists continue to debate the
process of conceptual change, teachers can
nurture conceptual change by creating the
conditions that promote conceptual change.
This task can be guided by attending to the
quickly growing professional literature that
documents the various misconceptions
common among students.

12/25/20 03:30 AM