CONTENT DETERMINES PROCESS: SEEING THE FAMILIAR IN NEW WAYS

Abstract

This article examines conceptual change research in order to develop an instructional framework for science educators consonant with research on learning disabled and special education populations. The resulting conceptual change instructional framework has four overlapping components: (a) elicitation of students preconceptions, (b) induction of conceptual dissonance, (c) interaction to refine conceptions and resolve conflict, and (d) reformulation, amendment, and extension of new conceptions. The resulting instructional framework is termed. PreconceptionsInduce DissonanceAmend (PID DA). The authors delineate a taxonomy of knowledge structures derived from research that may be used to guide teaching strategy selection. Four knowledge structures or frames are delineated in general terms as static, which includes the classication and structure frames, and dynamic, which includes the process/mechanism and concept/theory frames. The authors propose that static knowledge frames require teaching strategies that promote consistent relations among the elements of the knowledge frame, termed internal connections, whereas dynamic frames require strategies that promote conditional internal and external connections.