BUILDING A MODEL OF CONCEPTUAL CHANGE FOR THE GEOSCIENCES

Significant research suggests that conceptual change, the modification of existing knowledge, is integral to the learning process. This restructuring of pre-existing ideas has been the focus of myriad investigations over the past several decades, although the exact nature of conceptual change is still hotly contested. Evidence for a variety of conceptual change mechanisms exists, suggesting a complex process that may carry distinct characteristics depending upon setting and population (K-12, college, adult). College students' models of the Earth's interior, for example, suggest integration of new knowledge with pre-existing ideas, rather than wholesale replacement by scientific models. Pre-existing ideas may be scattered, disconnected fragments, with conceptual change and learning occurring as connections are made between knowledge fragments. Alternatively, some researchers suggest that linkages between knowledge fragments are less important than the ways in which knowledge is categorized (ontology). Distinct from these models is the notion that conceptual change will be impacted by the social context in which learning occurs, students' emotions about or interest in the concept (affective realm), and students' opinions about usefulness of new knowledge (epistemology). This paper will present a model for conceptual development and change in the geosciences that builds upon existing theoretical foundations related to transformation of knowledge structures via multiple mechanisms, ontological change, epistemological judgments and social/affective influences.