Theory of Conceptual Change

Theory of abstract ChangeIntroductionWhat is abstract heighten? abstract diversify is a assist that throws or replaces an breathing macrocosm with a impudently notionion. It could be an idea, a way or a representation of view 1. The set up or restructuring of acquaintance and impressions atomic number 18 what distinguishes abstract transmit encyclopaedism from opposite images of instruction. In abstract reposition culture, an quick planion might be fundament totallyy changed, replaced or assimilate by the impertinent-fangled knowledge. The change forms a conceptual fabric that is accustomful to solve future problems and explain the knowledge 2.The guess of conceptual change was developed by a group of information education researchers and philosophers in Cornell University in the early 80s 2. The guess was based on both Piagets notion of disequilibration and accommodation and Thomas Kuhns description of scientific revolution 1.conceptual Change fr om the epistemological perspectiveThe term epistemological belief is defined as philosophical nature of knowledge and the surgical operation of knowing 3. The influence of epistemological beliefs in classroom knowledge in unalike domain and the way student dig or manage their knowledge, is an interesting point in time of research 4, 5, 6. Epistemological beliefs research proves that the gulliblety of students beliefs regarding the nature of learning and knowledge ar strongly resulted from their less-sophisticated learning strategies, their lower aim of cognitive functioning and flexibility of their cognition summons 7.The best kn profess conceptual change model in science education is based on students epistemologies which is derived and refined by Posner, Strike, Hewson and Gertzog in 1982 2 and applied to classroom instruction. Posner et.al. 2 suggests that classical conceptual change is similar to the Kuhns 1 notion of a paradigm reel and Piagets notion of assimilation , accommodation and dis remainder. Classical conceptual change shows that dissatisfaction or cognitive conflict of the students occur when their belief and conception in the living conception framework fail to rival the bleak conception. Therefore, the students must abide by intelligent, arguable and prolific concepts to explain new concepts that may replace or assimilate with the old conceptions. The while of productive conception in the students is too difficult to detect.The learning models intention of realizes much(prenominal) as conceptual ecology, assimilation and accommodation suggests a constructivist notion based on Piagets research. Wandersee, Mintzes and Novak account in 1994 8 that these methods atomic number 18 to a greater extent effective than traditional methods. However, it is rather difficult to compare the effectiveness of conceptual change approaches and other approaches. diametrical approaches to the teaching and learning process have antithetic al aims hence evaluation should be set to come over specific goals. The aim in conceptual change depends on the way the approaches are employ in classroom practice and whether the potential to achieve goals. According to Posner et al. and Hewson 2, it is the student who determines conceptual status and conceptual changes that associates with the constructivist learning theory and the highly personal nature of conceptions, viewed as mental models.The ability to select intelligible, plausible and small-fruited representations or conceptions for a specific context is a measure of expertise 9. However, researchers need to be sensitive that apparent conceptual changes may in fact be context-driven choices. The use of conceptual profiles proposed by Mortimer 10 in learning settings help to diametriciate conceptual changes from contextual choices. Finally, the relation between epistemological beliefs and conceptual change learning needs to be highlighted for further research.conceptua l Change from the ontological perspectiveStudents knowledge is delineate by some researchers as an ontology, that is, as a representation of what is apparent for them based on what they know. A model called phenomenological primitives (p-prim) by DiSessa 11 interprets how students think approximately particular situations. Some believe that p-prim are additional aspects great to conceptual change. It is necessary to find effective representations of such information to be successful in induce conceptual change.Some researches focus on conceptual change processes in terms of mental models. The preexistent knowledge of children intimately how the world works involves the spontaneous changes and instruction-based changes at the mental model level 12. Similarly, 13 argues that tear down very puppylike children develop their own theories and speculate about phenomena. They believe based on the instruction, observations and incur from their daily life due to their ontological and epistemological commitments with the lack of scientific theories. A childs perception is laboured by their fleeceable framework of presuppositions 14. Chi 15 argues that conceptual change requires an ontological shift. The conceptual change process is hard be antecedent the lack of appropriate strategy to assign concept to a different ontological grade. heedful students erect assign the concept into the even up category by revising their ontological commitments, categories, and presuppositions.Posner et al.,2 primarily use epistemology to elaborate on conceptual changes and also research on the way that students view reality. Other researchers use specific ontological terms to explain changes to the way students conceptualize science entities 16, 17, 14. Carey 18 reasons that sound knowledge restructuring during childishness shows that some of the childrens concepts cigarettenot be compared with adults. Vosniadou 14 called for similarly radical changes in restructuring and a lso explains that revisions to central framework theories involve ontological and epistemological changes. There are umteen other concepts in which the scientists process views are incomparable with students clobber conceptions. The desired changes to ontology are not often achieved in domesticate science. Despite this pessimistic view, change of school students material is possible. However, scientific concepts are highly complicated and the view of optimizing school science is different with scientific view. Consistent with ontological position is the research of Chiu, Chou and Liu 19 who adopted Chis 15 ontological categories of scientific concepts to investigate how students perceive the concept of chemical equilibrium. Because science concepts are not presented by teachers or in textbooks with any ontological differentiation, the desired changes to student ontology are not ordinarily achieved in school science. Chiu et al. 19 argues that Posners 2 theory does not accurately represent the nature of scientific concepts which crystalizes learning the concept difficult.Duit Sinatra 9, 20 utilization of Chis 15 theory has constraint based features which includes randomness, synchronal action, and uniform activities. These features prevent students from deeply agreement the nature of this concept. Students in the cognitive apprentice group were more able to develop the microscopic concepts compared to the non-cognitive apprentice group. They were able to comprehend that the added compounds are eliminated by the reaction that they themselves caused as well as the macroscopic phenomenon of equilibrium evidenced in the reaction. The research also showed that matter concepts were comparatively easily understood in a scientific context but students had more difficulty understanding dynamic and random activities of particles in an equilibrium state.Conceptual change from the affective perspectiveThere are limited attention involving interest and motivation in conceptual change of the affective domain. This needs to be developed in science teaching because they play an important voice in supporting conceptual change on the level of scientific knowledge. The classical conceptual change approach involves the affective by implicitly pointing to student dissatisfaction with prior knowledge. To support these issues, Pintrich et al. 21 articulated that a hot conceptual change is as evident as cold cognition. He show that students self-efficacy and control beliefs, the classroom accessible context along with his goals, intentions, purposes, expectations and needs are as important cognitive strategies in concept learning. Students theories, beliefs and models are influenced by personal, motivational, social, historic factors and situational beliefs. Their background knowledge is often the constraint of knowledge restructuring. Individual goals, purposes and intentions promote conceptual change in students. Educators who disregard the social and motivational factors in learning and teaching activities allow cause limitation in the students change in knowledge 20.Emotions and motivation are crucial to the possibility of change 23. Although such models rouse reengineer human conceptual change in some instances, they fail to recognize emotional attachment to an idea.Conceptual change from the knowledgeable perspective lettered learning 22, 23 as a resolute goal-directed type of learning process is internally initiated instead of environmentally initiated. Therefore it is totally controlled in the conscience of the student. The intentional student knows and believes in internal initiation and goal oriented actions in the process of absorbing knowledge. Intentional learning interrelates to educational psychology with the constructs of higher level of learning and reasoning, self-regulation, engagement, and critical thinking. The students must be purposeful to monitor and regulate their learning in a metacognitive manne r. The lack of intentional learning in conceptual change may result in students assimilating new knowledge into existing ones without conceptual change.Gale Sinatra 24 argues that students conception have evolved from organism a passive receiver of information to an active constructor of knowledge. From then on, students come about from being an active constructor to an intentional student as well. Intentional learning is an achievement and not an automatic consequence of human intelligence that develops spontaneously with age. It is not even promoted in schools. Bereiter and Scardamalia 25 argue that students meet the short-term goals of school tasks with their own strategies instead of taking the effort to intentionally learn. Although the learning process laughingstock be intentional, students do not take initiative to learn. Thus, intentional learning is considered as a manual characteristic but something that develops with age.Students metaconceptual awareness can be improv ed by allowing them to visualize and read their ideas and beliefs verbally in group discussions. Collaborative learning, class discussions, observations, experiments and design of model, symbolic representation are significant for the branch of metaconceptual awareness and intentional learning. As a conclusion, intentional, motivated students are in control of their learning process 25.Conceptual change from the social pagan perspectiveThe overall culture and social conceptions also influences the conceptual change process. Solomon 26 states that socio cultural factors are significant in the learning process in achieving certain tasks. Solomon goes on to debate that if a students idea no longer exists, it will gradually be excluded from common interaction that might affect conceptual change process in students. The main outcome is to reform the social culture and to achieve understanding. As a whole, social culture is a huge influence in surrogateing conceptual change in studen ts.Hatano and Inagaki 27, who studied socio cultural environments that induced instructional change in schools, found out that social interaction and classroom group activities results in considerable progress in knowledge restructuring. However, more research is needed to investigate different methods in which conceptual change can be effectively applied by combining cognitive and socio cultural factors 27.Conceptual change from the flat perspectiveThe learning and teaching development is in need of pluralistic frameworks 28 to appropriately include the many perspectives from different views of learning. In science and scientific education, conceptual change in the multidimensional perspective fall out to be promising to improve understanding of science teaching and learning 9. In a nutshell, conceptual changes must consider epistemological, ontological and affective perspective ought to sufficiently manipulate the complex teaching and learning processes 29. Future researches wil l merge ideas of conceptual change and theories on the significance of affective factors.In contrast, Venville and Treagust 30 used four different perspectives which employs Posner, et al.s 2 conceptual change model, Vosniadous 14 framework theory and mental model perspective, Chi et al.s 16 ontological categories and Pintrich et al.s 31 motivation perspective, to research on various learning situations in which analogies were used. Venville and Treagust 30 state that each of them contributed to different conjectural perspectives and has different roles played in the classroom situations.The importance of conceptual change in science educationIn the conceptual change model, students use their existing knowledge, which is their conceptual ecology, to determine whether the different conditions are met. The new conception must be intelligible (the meaning is understood), plausible (the concept is true), and fruitful (the concept is utilizable). If the new conception fulfils all three conditions, conceptual change occurs and learning proceeds without difficulty 32.It is safe to put on that students do not come into science instruction class without any prior knowledge of the subject. 9. As a matter of fact, students already have rich and robust misconceptions, or naive conceptions that contrasted with the scientific world. Their misconception and the incidental common soul form the basis of the conceptual framework which the students rely on to interpret and make sense of new instructions. The student conceptions, despite being a stubborn source to influence by instruction, are also the foundation of scientific conceptions.In traditional teaching method, procedural competence is emphasized 33 more than conceptual understanding. Teaching methods are geared towards delivering facts that are passively absorbed by students in class. Students do not challenge their existing beliefs without the stimuli of new conception, but instead accept the knowledge as it is. Th erefore, conceptual change in education, which encourages problem solving and open discussion is conducive in constructing an accurate and unyielding conceptual framework in students which will be useful for future knowledge encyclopaedism.Challenges in Conceptual Change ResearchDespite decades of research and discussion in the field of science and education, answers to questions such as what exactly misconceptions are, what constitutes conceptual change and why is it so difficult remained unclear. These questions are the challenges that most conceptual change researchers face in their work.In order to promote deeper understanding, all naive knowledge needs to be fasteninged. However, naive knowledge is very resistant to change. According to Chi 34, because conceptual change is defined as the process of removing misconception, the definition is an infinite loop unless what constitute a misconception is established.While some naive conceptions or misconceptions are very difficult to change, other preconceptions are easier to change. Some of the reasons why misconceptions are hard to repair is due to the fact that they involve difficult to understand principles and concepts. Aside from that 34, because misconceptions are embedded in naive theories, and naive theories are difficult to separate with correct theories, the conceptual shift across both category is a difficult process.Lacks of awareness among students in their learning process often result in the inability to realize that their understanding is flawed. Students may not be aware of their own misconception and is unaware of their incorrect understanding. Similarly, in the context of miscategorization of concept, students may not aware if organisationatic interpretations can be generated using their miscategorized concept.Role of reckoner in conceptual change researchIn the advent of computer architecture, computers evolved into a versatile asshole capable of performing many tasks otherwise imposs ible for human being. Computers are not only useful as a official document in presentation and production, but recent studies aimed at using computers as learning enhancement tool success broady developed computer as a cognitive tool to facilitate the teaching and learning process. Consequently, this give rise to studies and development of using modern computer technologies to foster conceptual development and conceptual change assistance tools in classrooms 35.We would like to focus on deuce major roles of computer as cognitive tools in enhancing conceptual change education and discuss in detail in the laterComputer simulationsAgent technologyIntelligent System as perspicacity MethodThese cognitive tools were designed to provide effective and intelligible tools to provoke reasoning and comprehension skills. in concert with the aid of educators, these cognitive tools act as a catalyst to promote and enhance learning hold up and students conceptual change.Theories and models of co nceptual changeAccording to Piaget 36, the students knowledge changing process is identified by assimilations and accommodations and incorporates with equilibrium to foster conceptual change. Assimilation is the recognition process of fitting an event into an existing conception 37. Accommodation, on the other hand, enables new conception to replace the previous conception by changing fundamental belief about how the world works.For accommodation to occur, we believe that a student must be involved in a state of cognitive equilibrium by becoming motivated. When the students expectations are not met, equilibrium occurs. If the words, ideas and experiences presented can be assimilated by the student, then there is no equilibrium and subsequently no conceptual change. Conceptual change does not depend on contradiction, but on equilibrium.In Kuhns 1 opinion, scientific revolution is reproducible and follows a pattern. The basic way of perceiving, thinking, valuing and doing things is c onsidered as a state of crisis due to its failure to solve or explain significant problems 1 within the scientific community. This situation, which is termed as a dominant scientific paradigm, gave conception to an pick paradigm with the potential to solve the initial problem. The two conditions, between solving and not solving the scientific problem, increased a third probability situation in between, which is what known as paradigm shift, giving the world a whole new framework of thinking.Starting with a group of science education researchers and philosophers in Cornell University in the early 80s 2 , contemporary research and development of conceptual change theory was based on both Piagets notion of disequilibration and accommodation and Thomas Kuhns description of scientific revolution 1. In an attempt to clarify the concept of conceptual change, many researchers have proposed different opinions of the theory.Bereiter and Scardamalia 25 postulated the ideas of the intentional learner and Pintrich, Marx Boyle 31 emphasized that conceptual change is more than conceptual. The emphasis for change is within the learners control and the notion of intentional conceptual change is in certain aspect similar to that of mindfulness 38. It is assumed that learners are in full awareness and the state of change in mind is voluntarily, with the aid of motivation, cognition and learning.Hewsons 39 approach towards conceptual change is in favour of the constructivists idea 40. The constructivism philosophy is founded on the basis that we construct our own understanding of the environment by using our existing knowledge. Since the construction process is influenced by social experiences, case-by-casely constructed knowledge is usually not idiosyncratic nor personal and Hewson 39 believed that individually constructed knowledge is rational 41. However, the existing knowledge and socially trustworthy beliefs act as a hindrance to the interpretation of new experiences an d influences the perception of new knowledge in any situation. Therefore, depending on individual knowledge foundation and beliefs, and the influences of social interaction, two individuals exposed to the same events may perceive and interpret them in very different ways.According to Vosniadou 42, the process of conceptual change in learning is a constructivist approach with the assumption that knowledge is gained in domain specific and theory-like structures. Knowledge acquisition is characterized by theory changes 42 and is continuous and progressive.According to Chi and Roscoe 43, conceptual change is the process of repairing misconceptions. According to Hatano and Inagaki 44, naive conception is formed in order to make sense and predict unfamiliar entities of the surrounding. Usually, very early children formulate their own explanations and predictions of the world around them. The formed naive conception is continually repaired and replaced by new, plausible ideas. Chi and Ros coe 43 also viewed these misconceptions as incorrect categorization of concepts, and therefore conceptual change is the reassignment of concept to justly categorize the concepts.According to diSessa 44 conceptual change is the reorganization of the various kinds of knowledge into a complication system in the learners mind. According to this view, conceptual change is the process of cognitive reorganization of fragmented naive knowledge.In contrast, Ivarsson, Schoultz and Saljo, 45 regards that naive conception does not serve any purpose in conceptual change, since conceptual change is the appropriation of understanding tools. In this context, conceptual change is the result of change in the usage of these intellectual tools, and occurs at the societal level.Conceptual Change ModelsThe earliest model of conceptual change, termed as the classical conceptual change model is postulated by Posner et al. 2. The classical conceptual change model was modeled from the epistemological persp ective, and check to this model, there are four conditions before conceptual change could occur. The conditions are dissatisfaction with existing conception, intelligibility, plausibility and fruitfulness of the new concept. The four conditions will be explored in detail in the next few paragraphs.In order for conceptual change to occur, there must be dissatisfaction with existing conceptions. Scientists and students will only make major changes in their concepts if they believe that less radical changes does not work. Thus, before an accommodation occur, that particular individual must have in mind unsolved puzzles or anomalies, and is dissatisfied with the ability of his current concept capacity to solve these problems.The new concept must be intelligible. This means, the new experience encountered by the student must be sufficient in order for a new concept to be incorporate from it. It is worth noting that researchers often emphasize on the importance of analogies and metapho rs in aiding initial meaning and intelligibility to the new concepts 46, 47.The new concept must also sound plausible in order to be acceptable. The new concept must at least seem to be able to solve problems generated by the prior concept otherwise the new concept will not seem like a plausible choice. In fact, plausibility is resulted by the consistency of the concepts with other new knowledge. For example, a new idea in astronomy may less likely be accepted if it is inconsistent with the current knowledge of the subject matter. earlier to the 20th century, physical scientist were reluctant to accept the geologists claim for the age of the world, since theory regarding the sum to provide elan vital for the period of time was not founded yet.Lastly, the possibility of a new concept to provide further fruitful research program is also important. A new concept should have the potential to provide panoptic and new areas for inquiry. Researchers and students alike, estimates the fru itfulness of an alternative conception by evaluating whether the concept opens to something interesting, worthwhile to explore.However, classical conceptual change was criticized for its overly rational approach. Vosniadous 48 framework theory approach attempts to meet the criticisms against the conceptual change theory. In framework theory approach, misconceptions are not considered as unitary nor faulty conception. The knowledge system consists of various different elements in a complex organization. 48 Taking into consideration the evolutionary factors as well as learners interaction with their physical and social environment and their availability of cultural tools, the formation of the learners initial theory is distinctive from the misconceptions produced after systematic instructions. The constructivist approach of framework theory approach assumes that new conception is built on existing knowledge structures 48. The constructivist perspective provides a comprehensive framewo rk for meaningful and detailed prediction of the process of knowledge acquisition.Lets look at conceptual change from the point of view of the educators. It is the responsibility of the educators to teach students in the way that students conception difference could be facilitated. In fact, latest education tie in studies tried to include the students conceptions in the process of learning, in which a concept called conceptual change teaching is formed 32. In this concept, several(prenominal) stages of conceptual teaching are identified. These stages includes firstly, the diagnostic or elicitation stage, where the educators uses diagnostic techniques to find out the students existing conceptual ideas and the reasoning behind the idea secondly, the status change stage, in which educators uses designated methods to aid students lower the level of the existing incorrect knowledge and increase the level of the correct ideas and lastly, the evidence of the outcome, whether the outcome o f the learning process is partly based on the consideration of the prior existing knowledge.During the different stages aforementioned, there are different contributing factors, or variable that affects the teaching of conceptual change. These variables include metacognition, classroom climate, role of teacher and the role of learner.Metacognition refers awareness of thought processes, and is related to cognitive functions such as perception and attention 49. Educators should encourage students to look at the ideas in a third persons perspective, stepping back to evaluate both the new and old ideas, and express their opinions.Classroom climate refers to the atmosphere where the learning process is conducted, and the relationship between the educators and the students. There must be a mutual respect of ideas in order to foster a positive climate for learning.As a teacher, or educator, the role of teacher is to ensure that the students are provided ample opportunities for self express ion without being judged. An educators role is to deliver knowledge and the educator themselves must be aware that the knowledge that transpires in the lessons ought to be shared and discussed, rather than dispelling ideas that are different from their own.As a student, or learner, the role of learner is to be responsible of their own learning, to take interest in ideas different from their own and to synthesis new ideas from different sources, rather than expecting to memorize knowledge delivered by the educator.These variables to facilitate teaching have been successfully implemented in different levels of education and subjects 50, 51.Lets look at the alternative conception. In the alternative conception survey, there are many misconceptions that affect conceptual change, but the variables are inferential and hard to distinguish, especially for perceptions that are reported by subjects themselves 52. Three of the most general evidences stemmed from experience and perceptions, a w ide variety of cultural values and ideas, and language factors.According to Hawkins and Pea 53, young childrens scientific knowledge structure is constructed on a domain by domain basis before they receive formal education. Therefore, children are active constructors of their own knowledge framework. By interacting with the physical world and cultural environment, young children actively ask questions and give reasons about things in their point of view to gain more predictive control over their surroundings. The child learns about expectation of his own actions by the action of others, as well as the reaction of the physical world, and construct non-scientific framework of their encounters, which form the basis of their interpretation of natural and social events. Growing up children in all societies discover a many phenomena that facilitates learning, but not all discoveries are automatically interpreted, explicated and causally related in their mind. Prior to formal education or instruction, the childrens understanding is sufficient in interpreting and channelize them in their daily life 54 but this pre-conception of idea may drastically hinder formal scientific learning in classroom.The origin of conception is also heavily influence by the culture where the students recruit up in. The social scene is highly critical in influencing the perception of a particular task in the learning environment 55. Radical viewpoint differences from the accepted notions within the social scene will not survive for long as they will generally be excluded from social intercourse. Many young children do not have the ability to withstand the pressure, and the desire to be accepted will cause many ideas to be abandoned. Therefore, the strong influences of the overall culture on students perception and understanding cannot be handle by the educators. Quoting the example of Lopez 56, the Itzaj (a people native to the Americas) and the North American college students are discov er in the folkbiological taxonomies. It is observed that the Itzaj subjects have a unique way of categorizing bats. While the American group categorized bats with insectivores and rodents (scientifically correct to a certain degree), the Itzaj left them ungrouped and in a general category, or they classified the bats as birds. While formal interview revealed that the Itzaj agree that the bats is more like shrews and small rodents, they refuse to branch bat as mammals because they knew bats are birds. The influences of their culture caused the Itzaj subjects to ignore the relationship of bats to mammals. On the other hand, scientific understanding influences in the culture of the American college students, however, enable the North American college students to have misconceptions such as the Itzaj.The language, being the medium on interaction, is an influential variable in conception. Word meanings and usage may differ from individuals, and the correct term used by educators might b e different from what the students perceive in their naive knowledge. Especially in scientific learning, concepts and definitions ma