Science Education as Conceptual Change

The respective literature on science and math learning provide many detailed analyses of the alternative conceptual frameworks that students bring to the classroom and of the conceptual changes necessary for students to learn the concepts that are the targets of instruction. Examples range from young students’ understanding of number, astronomy, biology, and matter to the high school and college students’ understanding of mechanics, chemistry, thermal phenomena, or evolution. This paper shows that, for the average student, the conceptual changes sketched here are not completed until well into the second decade of life.