Archived Information

State of the Art: Science - September 1993

image omitted Students learn by "constructing" knowledge.

Constructivism tells us that people have to build their own scientific knowledge and understanding and that, at each step in science learning, they have to interpret new knowledge in the context of what they already understand.

We cannot teach directly, in the sense of putting fully formed knowledge into people's heads; yet it is our charge to help people construct powerful and scientifically correct interpretartions of the world. We must take into account learners' existing conceptions, yet at the same time help them to alter fundamentally their scientific misconceptions. 

                                              (Resnick and Chi, 1988)
Research from the cognitive sciences and from science education has transformed our understanding of how children learn. The view of the student absorbing knowledge, called the "constructivist approach" by being involved in interpreting and understanding new content, and linking new knowledge to existing knowledge in a meaningful way.

Learners come to new situations with preconceived notions; they are not blank slates. As children develop, and long before they enter formal education, they need to make sense of the natural world about them. Thus they begin to construct sets of ideas, expectations, and explanations about natural phenomena. Since these ideas are frequently quite different from the ones held by scientists, we sometimes refer to them as naive conceptions. For example, fifth grade students were asked, "What is food for plants?" Most students gave replies of "water," "soil," or "plant food" that can be bought in stores. These students had the idea that food for plants was something similar to food for people, rather than plants' need for light to make their own food through the process of photosynthesis (Anderson and Smith, 1984).

But the students' ideas make sense to them even though they are wrong from a scientific perspective. Naive conceptions are strongly held and must be examined and challenged in the course of instruction for new understanding to develop.

Teaching for conceptual change or "teaching for understanding" as it is called, required different strategies from those usually followed in the classroom. Teachers continually diagnose student ideas and consider where they are in the process of conceptual change. Students' naive conceptions are addressed through exploration and discussion. Opportunities are provided for testing of ideas, even those that are false. Materials are needed that will encourage the student's exploration of a phenomenon as a way of acquiring new knowledge. While research continues on the implications of constructivism for the curriculum and instruction, there is agreement that traditional didactic teaching is not the most effective way to promote conceptual change because students often remain committed to their alternative conceptions while memorizing new material and doing well on tests, but without any real understanding of new concepts.


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[Setting science standards provides a valuable resource for improved instruction.] [Table of Contents] [Hands-on, inquiry-based science instruction is well established as an effective teaching strategy.]