Refocusing Core Intuitions: A Concretizing Role for Analogy in Conceptual Change.

This article outlines a theoretical framework for viewing students' conceptions and the effect of analogies on students' conceptions. There are several points involved in this perspective: (a) Components of students' conceptions can be considered to be at various levels—verbal-symbolic knowledge, conscious models, implicit models, and core intuitions. (b) Components at the deeper, less articulated levels (especially core intuitions) are particularly entrenched. (c) Conceptual change in cases involving core intuitions can be considered to be the adjustment of attributive clusters for a class of situations. (d) In order to change the attributive cluster for a target situation, the target must be enriched with new concrete entities or features, providing nuclei for the reattribution of agency. (e) Analogies can help with this reattribution or refocusing by helping the student enrich his or her representation of the target situation.

[1]  D. Gentner.  Structure‐Mapping: A Theoretical Framework for Analogy* , 1983 .

[2]  Andrea A. diSessa,et al.  Knowledge in pieces : An evolving framework for understanding knowing and learning , 1988 .

[3]  K. Holyoak,et al.  Analogical problem solving , 1980, Cognitive Psychology.

[4]  J. J. Dupin,et al.  Taking Into Account Student Conceptions in Instructional Strategy: An Example in Physics , 1987 .

[5]  John H. Holland,et al.  Induction: Processes of Inference, Learning, and Discovery , 1987, IEEE Expert.

[6]  Paul Thagard,et al.  A computational model of analogical problem solving , 1989 .

[7]  Fred N. Finley,et al.  Variable uses of alternative conceptions: A case study in current electricity , 1992 .

[8]  S. Vosniadou.  RESTRUCTURING: LESSONS FROM THE STUDY OF KNOWLEDGE ACQUISITION IN ASTRONOMY , 2012 .

[9]  David E. Brown,et al.  Overcoming misconceptions via analogical reasoning: abstract transfer versus explanatory model construction , 1989 .

[10]  Leonard Talmy,et al.  Force Dynamics in Language and Cognition , 1987, Cogn. Sci..

[11]  W. Brewer,et al.  Mental models of the earth: A study of conceptual change in childhood , 1992, Cognitive Psychology.

[12]  David Brown,et al.  An Analogy-Based Computer Tutor for Remediating Physics Misconceptions , 1988, Interact. Learn. Environ..

[13]  K. Holyoak,et al.  Schema induction and analogical transfer , 1983, Cognitive Psychology.

[14]  David E. Brown.  Facilitating conceptual change using analogies and explanatory models , 1994 .

[15]  B. Andersson,et al.  The experiential gestalt of causation: a common core to pupils’ preconceptions in science , 1986 .

[16]  Eleanor Duckworth,et al.  Science Education: A Minds-on Approach for the Elementary Years , 1990 .

[17]  J. Clement,et al.  Not all preconceptions are misconceptions: finding ‘anchoring conceptions’ for grounding instruction on students’ intuitions , 1989 .

[18]  David E. Brown.  Using examples and analogies to remediate misconceptions in physics: Factors influencing conceptual change , 1992 .

[19]  J. Gibson.  The Ecological Approach to Visual Perception , 1979 .

[20]  J. Minstrell.  Explaining the ’’at rest’’ condition of an object , 1982 .

[21]  Dedre Gentner,et al.  Mechanisms of Analogical Learning. , 1987 .