Chapter 13 – Meaningful Learning in Science: The Human Constructivist Perspective

Publisher Summary This chapter reviews the research, focusing particularly on studies that support a new synthesis of learning theory, epistemology and philosophy of science. In physics, the earliest and most powerful studies investigated students' conceptions of basic Newtonian mechanics. Many students, regardless of age or prior experience, appear to subscribe to a kind of Aristotelian notion of moving bodies. In contrast to the Newtonian view, these students hold that moving objects are kept in motion by a constant force, and in the absence of a force, the objects are either at rest or slowing down. These views have been elicited from many students who have been asked to forecast the course of a moving body acted on by an exterior force. The consequence, as diSessa describes it, is “a collision” between an Aristotelian worldview and a Newtonian reality. Students' explanations of natural phenomena often resemble theories offered by previous generations of scientists and natural philosophers. The fundamental hypothesis of genetic epistemology is that there is a parallelism between progress made in the rational and logical organization of knowledge, and the corresponding psychological processes. Learning is the responsibility of the learner, and the conscious decision to learn meaningfully is one that only students can make.