Abstract
The argument will be advanced in this paper that naive physics is neither a collection of unstructured knowledge elements nor a collection of stable misconceptions that need to be replaced,but rather a complex conceptual system that organises children’s perceptual experiences and information they receive from the culture into coherent explanatory frameworks that make it possible for them to function in the physical world.The processof learning science appears to be a slow and gradual one during which aspects of the scientific information are added on to the initial explanatory framework destroying its coherence until (and if)itis restructured in ways to make it consistent withcurrently accepted scientific views.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Carey, S., & Spelke, E. (1994). Domain specific knowledge and conceptual change. In L.A. Hirschfeld and S.A. Gelman (Eds.) Mapping the mind (pp. 160–200). New York: Cambridge University Press.
Chi, M.T.H. (1992). Conceptual change within and across ontological categories: Examples from learning and discovery in science. In R. Giere (Ed.) Cognitive Models of Science: Minnesota Studies in the Philosophy of Science. (pp. 129–160). Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press.
Clement, J. (1982). Students’ preconceptions in introductory mechanics. American Journal of Physics, 50, 66–71.
Clement, J. (July, 1986). Misconceptions in mechanics and an attempt to remediate them: The use of analogies and anchoring intuitions. Paper presented at the conference “The Psychology of Physics Problem Solving: Theory and Practice”, Bank Street College.
diSessa, A.A. (1988). Knowledge in pieces. In G. Forman & P.B. Pufall (Eds.), Constructivism in the computer age (pp. 49–70). Hillsdale. NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
diSessa, A. (1993). Toward an epistemology of physics. Cognition and Instruction, 10, 105–225.
Gopnik, A. (1996). The scientist as a child. Philosophy of Science, 63, 485–514.
Hatano, G., & Inagaki, K. (1987). Everyday biology and school biology: How do they interact? The Quarterly Newsletter of the Laboratory of Comparative Human Cognition, 9, 120–128.
Ioannides, C., & Vosniadou, S. (in press). Exploring the changing meanings of force: From coherence to fragmentation, Cognitive Science Quarterly.
Ioannidou, I., & Vosniadou, S. (in press). The development of knowledge about the composition and layering of the earth’s interior. Nea Paideia (in Greek).
Karmiloff-Smith, A., & Inhelder, B. (1974). If you want to go ahead get a theory. Cognition, 3, 195–212.
Keil, F. (1989). Concepts, kinds, and cognitive development. Cambridge: MIT Press.
Kuhn, D., Amsel, E., and O’ Longhlin, M., (1988). The development of scientific thinking skills. London: Academic Press.
Kyrkos, C., & Vosniadou, S., (1997) Mental Models of Pant Nutrition. Poster presented at the Seventh European Conference for Research on Learning and Instruction, Athens, Greece
Lesley, A.M. (1994). ToMM, ToBY, and Agency: Core architecture and domain specificity. In L.A. Hirschefeld, & S.A. Gelman (Eds.), Mapping the mind. Cambridge University Press.
McCloskey, M. (1983): Naive theories of motion. In D. Gentner & A.L. Stevens (Eds.), Mental models. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Megalakaki, O., loannides, C., Vosniadou, S., & Tiberghien, A. (August, 1997). Differentiating force from energy: Children’s understanding of the concepts of energy and force. Seventh European Conference for Research on Learning and Instruction, Athens, Greece.
Ministrell, J. (1982). Explaining the “at rest” condition of an object. The Physics Teacher, January, 10–14.
Nersessian, N. J., & Resnick, L.B. (1989). Comparing historical and intuitive explanations of motion: Does “naive physics” have a structure? Proceedings of the 11thAnnual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society (pp. 412–417). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates
Osborne, R. & Freyberg, P. (1985). Learning in science: The implications of childrens’ science. London: Heineman.
Ranney, M (1994). Relative consistency of subjects’ “Theories” in domains such as naive physics: Common research difficulties illustrated by Cooke and Breedin. Memory and Cognition, 22, 494–502.
Reif, F., & Allen, S. (1989). Interpreting and teaching scientific concepts: A study of acceleration. Cognition and Instruction, pp.
Reiner, M., Slotta, J.D., Chi, M.T.H., and Resnick, L.B. (2000) Naive physics reasoning: A commitment to substance-based conceptions. Cognition and Instruction,18,1–34.
Springer, K., & Keil, F.C. (1989). On the development of biologically specific beliefs: The case of inheritance. Child Development, 60, 637–648.
Smith, J.P., diSessa, A.A., & Rochelle, J. (1993). Misconceptions Reconceived: A Constructivist analysis of knowledge in transition, The Journal of Learning Sciences, 3, 115–183
Viennot, L. (1979). Spontaneous reasoning in elementary dynamics. European Journal of Science Education, 1, 205–225.
Vosniadou, S. (1994). Capturing and modeling the process of conceptual change. Learning and Instruction, 4, 45–69.
Vosniadou, S., & Brewer, W. F. (1992): Mental models of the earth: A study of conceptual change in childhood. Cognitive Psychology, 24, 535–585.
Vosniadou, S., & Brewer, W. F. (1994): Mental models of the day/night cycle. Cognitive Science, 18, 123–183.
Vosniadou, S., Ioannides, C., Dimitrakopoulou, A., & Papademitriou, E. (in press). Designing Learning Environments to Promote Conceptual Change in Science. Learning and Instruction
Vygotsky, L. (1962). Thought and language. The MIT Press.
Wiser, M. (1987). The differentiation of heat and temperature: History of science and novice-expert shift. In S. Strauss (Ed.), Ontogeny, phylogeny, and historical development. Norwood, NJ: Ablex.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2002 Kluwer Academic Publishers
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Vosniadou, S. (2002). On the Nature of Naïve Physics. In: Limón, M., Mason, L. (eds) Reconsidering Conceptual Change: Issues in Theory and Practice. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/0-306-47637-1_3
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/0-306-47637-1_3
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-1-4020-0494-0
Online ISBN: 978-0-306-47637-2
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive