Tamer G. Amin - Böcker

Conceptual change, how conceptual understanding is transformed, has been investigated extensively since the 1970s. The field has now grown into a multifaceted, interdisciplinary effort with strands of research in cognitive and developmental psychology, education, educational psychology, and the learning sciences. Converging Perspectives on Conceptual Change brings together an extensive team of expert contributors from around the world, and offers a unique examination of how distinct lines of inquiry can complement each other and have converged over time.Amin and Levrini adopt a new approach to assembling the diverse research on conceptual change: the combination of short position pieces with extended synthesis chapters within each section, as well as an overall synthesis chapter at the end of the volume, provide a coherent and comprehensive perspective on conceptual change research. Arranged over five parts, the book covers a number of topics including: the nature of concepts and conceptual change representation, language, and discourse in conceptual change modeling, explanation, and argumentation in conceptual change metacognition and epistemology in conceptual change identity and conceptual change.Throughout this wide-ranging volume, the editors present researchers and practitioners with a more internally consistent picture of conceptual change by exploring convergence and complementarity across perspectives. By mapping features of an emerging paradigm, they challenge newcomers and established scholars alike to embrace a more programmatic orientation towards conceptual change.

Conceptual change, how conceptual understanding is transformed, has been investigated extensively since the 1970s. The field has now grown into a multifaceted, interdisciplinary effort with strands of research in cognitive and developmental psychology, education, educational psychology, and the learning sciences. Converging Perspectives on Conceptual Change brings together an extensive team of expert contributors from around the world, and offers a unique examination of how distinct lines of inquiry can complement each other and have converged over time.Amin and Levrini adopt a new approach to assembling the diverse research on conceptual change: the combination of short position pieces with extended synthesis chapters within each section, as well as an overall synthesis chapter at the end of the volume, provide a coherent and comprehensive perspective on conceptual change research. Arranged over five parts, the book covers a number of topics including: the nature of concepts and conceptual change representation, language, and discourse in conceptual change modeling, explanation, and argumentation in conceptual change metacognition and epistemology in conceptual change identity and conceptual change.Throughout this wide-ranging volume, the editors present researchers and practitioners with a more internally consistent picture of conceptual change by exploring convergence and complementarity across perspectives. By mapping features of an emerging paradigm, they challenge newcomers and established scholars alike to embrace a more programmatic orientation towards conceptual change.

Understanding important scientific concepts like matter, energy, force, and species is central to scientific literacy. But how do we learn scientific concepts? This book explains what research across distinct theoretical perspectives has taught us and then cuts through the diversity to offer a novel integrated account and a unified theory of conceptual change.Theoretical perspectives from science education, cognitive science, developmental psychology, the learning sciences, and the history and philosophy of science are often seen as competing alternatives and practical pedagogical recommendations diverge, sometimes even contradicting one another. Learning Scientific Concepts responds by explaining and evaluating prominent theoretical perspectives: the nature of concepts and conceptual development, in general, as understood in cognitive and developmental psychology; and theory change, knowledge-in-pieces, and situated/embodied/distributed perspectives on science concept learning, in particular. It then integrates these perspectives and proposes the Unified Theory of Conceptual Change (UTCC), building on Susan Carey’s foundational account of concepts and conceptual development in developmental psychology and Edwin Hutchins’ multilevel approach to analyzing cognitive systems in cognitive anthropology. The UTCC outlines a comprehensive modeling toolkit for making sense of how we learn scientific concepts at different levels of analysis.This book serves as a comprehensive guide for researchers, advanced students, and practitioners to the most important research on learning scientific concepts. In proposing a novel theoretical synthesis, it also suggests a way forward for researchers and offers practitioners a coherent and comprehensive story of what kind of instruction and curricular design is effective and why.

Understanding important scientific concepts like matter, energy, force, and species is central to scientific literacy. But how do we learn scientific concepts? This book explains what research across distinct theoretical perspectives has taught us and then cuts through the diversity to offer a novel integrated account and a unified theory of conceptual change.Theoretical perspectives from science education, cognitive science, developmental psychology, the learning sciences, and the history and philosophy of science are often seen as competing alternatives and practical pedagogical recommendations diverge, sometimes even contradicting one another. Learning Scientific Concepts responds by explaining and evaluating prominent theoretical perspectives: the nature of concepts and conceptual development, in general, as understood in cognitive and developmental psychology; and theory change, knowledge-in-pieces, and situated/embodied/distributed perspectives on science concept learning, in particular. It then integrates these perspectives and proposes the Unified Theory of Conceptual Change (UTCC), building on Susan Carey’s foundational account of concepts and conceptual development in developmental psychology and Edwin Hutchins’ multilevel approach to analyzing cognitive systems in cognitive anthropology. The UTCC outlines a comprehensive modeling toolkit for making sense of how we learn scientific concepts at different levels of analysis.This book serves as a comprehensive guide for researchers, advanced students, and practitioners to the most important research on learning scientific concepts. In proposing a novel theoretical synthesis, it also suggests a way forward for researchers and offers practitioners a coherent and comprehensive story of what kind of instruction and curricular design is effective and why.

The collection includes contributions that discuss contemporary issues such as climate change, multiculturalism, and the flourishing of new interdisciplinary areas of investigation, including the application of cognitive neuroscience, artificial intelligence, and digital humanities to science education research.