Abstract
In responding to the research on conceptual change, this article attempts to make two points. First, scientific concepts are not possessed by individuals; rather, they are part of a culture’s resources, which individuals learn to use for their own or for group purposes. Second, particular concepts are most effectively mastered when the learner is deeply engaged in solving a problem for which they function as effective semiotic tools in achieving a solution. On these grounds, it is argued that the mastering of scientific concepts is best achieved through learning to use them in motivated inquiry.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
Throughout the paper, numbers in square brackets refer to the sequential number of the paragraph in Treagust and Duit’s paper.
Gestures and other forms of non-verbal action, including the making of visual representations, frequently accompany linguistic utterances and, on occasion, substitute for them in interpersonal interaction (Crowder 1996).
See Nelson (2007).
Vygotsky (1981) argued that, in order to understand the current state of some aspect of development, it is necessary to study the history (genesis) of that development.
In this and the following transcript extracts, the following conventions apply: [ ] enclose interpretations and contextual information; < > enclose segments where the transcription is in doubt; * indicates an unintelligible word; CAPS indicate a segment spoken with emphasis; underline indicates segments spoken simultaneously; . a period marks approximately one second of pause.
These sentences are so written as to exemplify the characteristics of the new linguistic register discussed. Halliday (1993) uses the terms “synoptic” and “dynamic” to contrast the language of science with everyday language. Bruner (1986) makes a similar distinction between “paradigmatic” and “narrative” modes of meaning.
It is important to point out that interest does not have to preexist a challenging problem; it is often the problem itself that generates interest.
Although the interviews were not intended to provide an opportunity for learning, Treagust and Duit suggest that learning may well have occurred in the case of the interview with Dana (cf. Scardamalia and Bereiter 1983).
Known as “The Developing Inquiring Communities in Education Project” (DICEP), this project was funded by the Spencer Foundation between 1991 and 2001 (Wells 2001).
The reluctance of many adults to use computers provides a good analogy. Being adept at using pencil and paper for making mathematical calculations of for writing letters or other types of text, they do not feel the need to learn to use a different kind of tool, which is less transparent in use.
References
Austin, J. L. (1962). How to do things with words. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Bakhtin, M. M. (1986). Speech genres and other late essays (Y. McGee, Trans.). Austin: University of Texas Press.
Ball, T., & Wells, G. (2006). Walking the talk: The complexities of teaching about teaching. International Journal of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education, 18(3), 188–203.
Bandura, A. (1994). Self-efficacy. In V. S. Ramachaudran (Ed.), Encyclopedia of human behavior (Vol. 4, pp. 71–81). New York: Academic Press.
Beach, K. (1999). Consequential transitions. In A. Iran-Nejad & P. D. Pearso (Eds.), Review of research in education (Vol. 24, pp. 101–139). Washington, DC: American Educational Research Association.
Bereiter, C. (1994). Implications of postmodernism for science, or, science as progressive discourse. Educational Psychologist, 29(1), 3–12.
Bransford, J. D., Brown, A. L., & Cocking, R. (Eds.) (2000). How people learn. Washington, D.C.: National Academies Press.
Brown, A. L., et al. (1996). Social interaction and individual understanding in a community of learners: The influence of Piaget. In V. A. Tryphon & J. Vonèche (Eds.), Piaget-Vygotsky: The social genesis of thought (pp. 145–170). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Bruner, J. S. (1986). Actual minds, possible worlds. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Bruner, J. S. (1990). Acts of meaning. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Clark, E. (1974). Some aspects of the conceptual basis for first language acquisition. In R. Schiefelbusch & L. Lloyd (Eds.), Language perspectives: Acquisition, retardation and intervention. Baltimore: University Park Press.
Collins, A., Brown, J. S., & Newman, S. E. (1989). Cognitive apprenticeship: Teaching the crafts of reading, writing, and mathematics. In L. B. Resnick (Ed.), Knowing, learning, and instruction: Essays in honor of Robert Glaser (pp. 453–494). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
Crowder, E. M. (1996). Gestures at work in sense-making science talk. Journal of the Learning Sciences, 5(3), 173–208.
Dewey, J. (1938). Experience and education. New York: Collier Macmillan.
Donald, M. (1991). Origins of the modern mind: Three stages in the evolution of culture and cognition. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Galbraith, B., Van Tassell, M. A., & Wells, G. (1997). Learning and teaching in the zone of proximal development. In A. Alvarez (Ed.), Hacia un curriculum cultural: La vigencia de Vygotski en educacion. Madrid: Fundacion Infancia y Aprendizaje. Reprinted in Wells, 1999.
Halliday, M. A. K. (1988). On the language of physical science. In M. Ghadessy (Ed.), Registers of written English: Situational factors and linguistic features (pp. 162–178). London: Frances Pinter.
Halliday, M. A. K. (1993). Towards a language-based theory of learning. Linguistics and Education, 5, 93–116.
Halliday, M. A. K., & Martin, J. R. (1993). Writing science: Literacy and discursive power. London: Falmer Press.
Hatano, G., & Inagaki, K. (1991). Sharing cognition through collective comprehension activity. In L. B. Resnick, J. M. Levine, & S. D. Teasley (Eds.), Perspectives on socially shared cognition (pp. 331–348). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
Herrenkohl, L. R., & Guerra, M. R. (1998). Participant structures, scientific discourse and student engagement in fourth grade. Cognition and Instruction, 16(4), 431–473.
Hume, K. (2001). Seeing shades of grey: Developing a knowledge building community through science. In G. Wells (Ed.), Talk, text, and inquiry (pp. 99–117). New York: Teachers College Press.
Immordino-Yang, M. H., & Damasio, A. (2007). We feel, therefore we learn: The relevance of affective and social neuroscience to education. Mind, Brain, and Education, 1(1), 3–10.
Lave, J., & Wenger, E. (1991). Situated learning: Legitimate peripheral participation. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Lemke, J. L. (1990). Talking science: Language, learning, and values. Ñorwood, NJ: Ablex.
Luria, A. R. (1976). Cognitive development: Its cultural and social foundations. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Nelson, K. (2007). Young minds in social worlds: Experience, meaning and memory. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Olson, D. R. (1994). The world on paper. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Olson, D. R. (2003). Psychological theory and educational reform: How school remakes mind and society. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Popper, K. R. (1972). Objective knowledge: An evolutionary approach. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Popper, K. R. (1978). Three worlds. In The Tanner lectures on human values (pp. 143–167). Salt Lake City, UT: University of Utah.
Popper, K. R., & Eccles, J. C. (1977). The self and its brain. Berlin: Springer-Verlag.
Scardamalia, M., & Bereiter, C. (1983). Child as coinvestigator: Helping children gain insight into their own mental processes. In S. Paris, G. Olson, & H. Stevenson (Eds.), Learning and motivation in the classroom (pp. 61–82). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Smith, J. P., diSessa, A. A., & Roschelle, J. (1993). Misconceptions reconceived: A constructivist analysis of knowledge in transition. The Journal of the Learning Sciences, 3(2), 115–163.
van Zee, E. H., Iwasyk, M., Kurose, A., Simpson, D., & Wild, J. (2001). Student and teacher questioning during conversations about science. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 38(2), 159–190.
Voloshinov, V. N. (1973). Marxism and the philosophy of language (L. Mtejka & I. R. Titunik, Trans.). Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Vygotsky, L. S. (1978). Mind in society: The development of higher psychological processes. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Vygotsky, L. S. (1981). The genesis of higher mental functions. In J. V. Wertsch (Ed.), The concept of activity in Soviet Psychology (pp. 144–188). Armonk, NY: Sharpe.
Vygotsky, L. S. (1987). Thinking and speech (N. Minick, Trans.). In R. W. Rieber & A. S. Carton (Eds.), The collected works of L.S. Vygotsky, Vol. 1: Problems of general psychology (pp. 39–285). New York: Plenum.
Wartofsky, M. (1979). Models, representation and the scientific understanding. Boston: Reidel.
Wells, G. (1986). The meaning makers: Children learning language and using language to learn. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
Wells, G. (1999). Dialogic inquiry: Towards a sociocultural practice and theory of education. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Wells, G. (Eds.) (2001). Action, talk, and text: Learning and teaching through inquiry. New York: Teachers College Press.
Wertsch, J. V. (1991). Voices of the mind: A sociocultural approach to mediated action. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Wells, G. Learning to use scientific concepts. Cult Stud of Sci Educ 3, 329–350 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11422-008-9100-6
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11422-008-9100-6