Silvia Caravita

Re-framing the problem of conceptual change

Abstract The article challenges the model of conceptual change widely shared within the “alternative frameworks” movement in science education. Epistemological models of the evolution of scientific knowledge and the development of rational thinking have generated the metaphor of the science learner as a scientist: we argue that these models constrain rather than empower the inquiry and the interpretation of the learning processes occurring in the classroom. Our studies about learning in the biological domain approach the process of change, and examples are produced to illustrate that change is not localized in content structures, nor does it necessarily come about through conflict and replacement of pre-existing ideas and practices. Change involves a set of ways of thinking about a conceptual domain, which are elicited in specific contexts of action and discourse. It results in an “opportunistic” differentiation among contexts of interpretation. “But which is the stone that supports the bridge?,” Kublai Khan asks. “The bridge is not supported by one stone or another,” Marco answers, “but by the line of the arch they form.” Kublai Khan remains silent, reflecting. Then he adds: “Why do you speak to me of the stones? It is only the arch that matters to me.” Polo answers: “Without stones there is no arch.” ( Marco Polo by Italo Calvino).

What do laypersons want to know from scientists? An analysis of a dialogue between scientists and laypersons on the web site Scienzaonline

Scienzaonline is an interactive web site developed by the Museum of Zoology of Rome that offers various services. After the site had been online for three years, we examined approximately 800 questions received by the service Expert on line to understand what laypeoples interests in science are and in which life contexts they emerge. The contents of the questions were categorized to reveal the function and the nature of the knowledge that people expect from “experts”. Some kind of actual accomplishment motivates most of the questions, though a considerable number of them have knowledge and understanding as their objective. Information is the main form of expected knowledge and disciplinary knowledge is viewed as the privileged source of it. A relevant percentage of messages reveal the desire to obtain explanations and validations of reported facts, an aid to go beyond factual knowledge. Striving to find answers to “great unanswered questions” emerges as a passionate intellectual endeavor for some people.

Are bones alive

Many studies have investigated the classification of living things. Our study deals with a different problem: the attribution of life to one component of a living organism, specifically the bones. The task involves not only specifying what we mean by ‘alive’, but also requires ‘informed thinking’ leading to an understanding of the concept of life itself. This study is part of an education programme at the Civic Zoological Museum of Rome. The questions “Are bones alive when they are inside the living body? What evidence do you have to this effect? What are bones made of? Can bones grow? How do they grow? Do children or newborn animals have the same bones as adults?” were addressed to a sample of 189 students aged 7 to 12 taking part in the programme, and to a sample of over one hundred 17–18 year old students visiting the Museum. Not only did the younger students consider bones as non-living entities, so did a high percentage of lower and higher secondary school students, although many of them mentioned their “having cells” and acknowledged their growth. In this paper, we argue that the acquisition of the concept of life should be a priority in the study of biology but, on the contrary, it is rarely the object of deliberate and informed teaching in our schools.

Education for Sustainable Development: An International Survey on Teachers’ Conceptions

A first part describes the state of implementation of Education for a Sustainable Development (ESD) from examples all around the world, showing its presence in most of curricula and syllabuses but with some differences among countries. A general problem is the teachers’ difficulty to take into account the multidisciplinary dimensions of ESD (ecological, social and economical) and to define their more or less impartial posture. ESD is also rooted in several kinds of values, some of them being linked to the preservation of the environment while others deal with universal human rights. Are teachers sharing these both categories of values all around the world? Are their conceptions, rooted in their values and social practice, different among various sociocultural contexts? Is there a correlation between the teachers’ conceptions on the environment and on human rights?

Organizing the Concept of Organism at the Elementary School Level: A Case Study

Children’s conceptions of the human body grow from a self-centered to an objective view, from a holistic to an analytical approach, which leads to a more differentiated conception, but which ultimately is no longer able to account for the complexity of the organism. The ‘one part-one function’ view is very likely to result from structure-oriented textbook descriptions of independent body components which remain largely unchanged even in adults. The construction of a systemic view is a long-term process which can begin in the elementary school. Our observations bear on a case study based on a 4th grade class, and was aimed at documenting the processes activated by various contexts where different symbolic media were used by the children to build models and make their ideas explicit. Each context triggered different reasoning strategies for explaining the relationships among the body’s systems, and supported a range of negotiations among the children who had to assign meaning to the analogical constructions that they were producing. On the basis of these observations, the evolution of conceptualization in this area has been re-constructed. Rather than a dramatic restructuring of each concept, the data seems to demonstrate a diffuse change in important aspects of the mental ecology in which the concepts are embedded.

Educational Approach to Environmental Complexity in Life Sciences School Manuals: An Analysis Across Countries

The BIOHEAD-Citizen project was aimed to deepen the understanding of how different aspects of citizenship can be promoted through biology, health and environmental education. Teachers’ conceptions, defined as constructs emerging from the interaction of knowledge, values and social practices (Clement, 2006), and the conceptions implicit in the messages conveyed by science school manuals were the targets of the investigations. This chapter is aimed at presenting an overview of the main findings concerning environmental education (EE) that resulted from the analyses of life sciences manuals carried out in the countries participating in the European project “Biology, Health and Environmental Education for better citizenship”.

School textbooks and updated sound science: narrowing the gap between classrooms and cutting edge science

There are three things on which scientists and educators surely agree. The first is that science changes with time. Nobody believes that scientific truth is something set in stone but something subjected to endless scrutiny leading to frequent revision. The second is that the pace of change in science is increasing every day, at an astonishing speed. The third is that science education should deal with accurate knowledge and understanding. So one might expect that science education would also be subject to constant scrutiny and to frequent revision – not only in terms of pedagogy and educational strategy, but also in terms of scientific content itself. Yet educational innovation can be very difficult everywhere. The sabre tooth tiger tale, put forward by the late American educator Ralph W. Tyler (1902– 1994), who worked in the field of evaluation and assessment, still carries an important message for us today. It runs as follows: students were taught to light a fire at night 100,000 years ago, which prevented the approach of sabre tooth tigers. When the Ice Age came, these tigers became extinct, and bears were attracted by fires. Notwithstanding this, the school curriculum did not change, and students were still taught to light fires at night. One may object that science education deals with the basics of scientific knowledge rather than with cutting edge science. But this is only partially true as it does not address the issue of educational innovation itself. It will not be difficult to think of examples of ‘wrong’ science that was taught in schools for many years, even within an experimental approach. For example, the known ‘candle and tumbler myth’ is linked with a very popular experiment worldwide in which a burning candle in a container of water is covered by a beaker. The result is the extinction of the flame and the rising of the water level inside the