Initial and scientific understandings and the problem of conceptual change

This chapter describes the framework theory approach to conceptual change in science learning. On this view, conceptual change is not a sudden replacement of a naïve physics with a scientific theory but a slow, gradual and constructive process of concept revision and formation. Central to this approach is the idea that knowledge acquisition starts with the construction of framework theories. Framework theories are implicit and skeletal conceptual structures that lack the consistency and explanatory power of scientific theories but are nevertheless principle-based systems that support explanation and prediction and exert a continuous influence on the process of learning science creating fragmentation and synthetic conceptions.