Constructivist, conceptual change and science teaching: where are we going?

In this paper I discuss some aspects of constructivism and of teaching strategies for conceptual change, trying to draw an overview of a new model of understanding students' conceptions as part of a more general framework: the conceptual profile notion. This notion allows to trace the conceptua...

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Bibliographic Details
Author: Mortimer, Eduardo Fleury
Format: article
Status:Published version
Publication Date:2016
Country:Brasil
Institution:Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS)
Repository:Revista Investigações em ensino de ciências
Language:Portuguese
OAI Identifier:oai:ojs.www.if.ufrgs.br:article/645
Online Access:https://ienci.if.ufrgs.br/index.php/ienci/article/view/645
Access Level:Open access
Keyword:constructivism
conceptual change
conceptual profile.
construtivismo
mudança conceitual
perfil conceitual
Description
Summary:In this paper I discuss some aspects of constructivism and of teaching strategies for conceptual change, trying to draw an overview of a new model of understanding students' conceptions as part of a more general framework: the conceptual profile notion. This notion allows to trace the conceptual evolution in the classroom as a change of a profile of conceptions. This perspective differs from conceptual change models by suggesting that it is possible to use different ways of thinking in different domains and that a new concept does not necessarily replace previous and alternative ideas. According to this model, learning science is to change a conceptual profile and become conscious of the different zones of the profile, which includes common-sense and scientific ideas. Through this notion it is possible to situate the students' ideas in a broader context that includes scientific knowledge and school's culture.