The Fit of the Implicit Cognition Paradigm to Science Education Research: An Exploratory Analysis

In this paper we propose that cross-fertilization between science education research and implicit cognition research could be mutually beneficial. In particular, we detail hypotheses about the nature and prevalence of misconceptions in different scientific domains that could be generated from an implicit cognition perspective and describe methodological guidance that could be derived from this same perspective. Next, we present our study, which involved collecting data from 80 participants who completed a pre-test, a computer-based lesson, hands-on activities and a post-test, after being randomly assigned to a scientific domain (classical mechanics or circuits) and teaching technique (traditional or conceptual change). Finally, we show that our data support the theoretically driven hypotheses and that the methodological techniques increased the power and sensitivity of our analyses, lending credence to our claim that more interaction between these two communities could be fruitful.