HOW TO FACILITATE STUDENTS' CONCEPTUAL UNDERSTANDING OF CHEMISTRY? --- A HISTORY AND PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE PERSPECTIVE

A Framework to Facilitate Conceptual Understanding A review of the literature shows that the following aspects play an important role in the facilitation of conceptual change: 1. Relationship between the process of theory development by scientists and a students’ acquisition of knowledge (Kitchener, 1986; Piaget & Garcia, 1989; Chinn & Brewer, 1993). 2. As a prerequisite for conceptual change it is essential that students be provided with opposing views that contradict their previous knowledge (alternative conceptions) and the two constitute rival theories for students’ thinking (Lakatos, 1970). 3. Development of new ideas in science has its origins not in objective facts alone but in a conception, a deliberate construction of the mind --a heuristic principle (Schwab, 1962; Holton, 1978, Lakatos, 1970). 4. The new/alternative framework must appear initially plausible to the students (Strike & Posner, 1985) in order to facilitate ‘progressive transitions’ in understanding (Linn & Songer, 1991). 5. Design of interactive ‘teaching experiments’ to generate situations / experiences in which students are forced to grapple with alternative responses leading to cognitive conflicts (Piaget, 1980; Vygotsky, 1978). 6. Task analysis of students’ strategies based on Pascual-Leone’s (1987) Theory of Constructive Operators, which facilitates a conceptual and epistemological origin of students’ thinking (Niaz, 2002; Niaz & Chacón, 2003; Tsaparlis, 1998).

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