A Case Study of Conceptual Change in a Young Child

Abstract

In this case study I traced the process of conceptual change in a young boy, my grandson, from the middle of kindergarten until the beginning of second grade. Data included field notes of informal interactions and interviews with parents and teachers as well as information collected in 22 hour-long sessions. In these sessions, Christopher was interviewed and given instruction about ideas related to the shape of the earth and the causes of day and night and the seasons. In most sessions I read trade books to Christopher and accompanied them with models and demonstrations. At the conclusion of each session, Christopher drew and/or wrote in a journal. In this article I describe Christopher's ideas about the earth at the outset of the study, the sources of these ideas, the process by which he restructured his alternative conceptions, and the instructional conditions that supported his conceptual change. I also provide criteria for defining an alternative conception and suggest how conditions in Christopher's initial interview may have encouraged him to construct an alternative conception of gravity.