Compatibility between cultural studies and conceptual change in science education: there is more to acknowledge than to fight straw men!

In this response, we attempt to clarify our position on conceptual change, state our position on mental models being a viable construct to represent learning, indicate important issues from the social cultural perspective that can inform our work on conceptual change and lastly comment on issues that we consider to be straw men. Above all we argue that there is no best theory of teaching and learning and argue for a multiple perspective approach to understanding science teaching and learning.

Enacting Conceptual Metaphor through Blending: Learning activities embodying the substance metaphor for energy

We demonstrate that a particular blended learning space is especially productive in developing understanding of energy transfers and transformations. In this blended space, naturally occurring learner interactions like body movement, gesture, and metaphorical speech are blended with a conceptual metaphor of energy as a substance in a class of activities called Energy Theater. We illustrate several mechanisms by which the blended aspect of the learning environment promotes productive intellectual engagement with key conceptual issues in the learning of energy, including distinguishing among energy processes, disambiguating matter and energy, identifying energy transfer, and representing energy as a conserved quantity. Conceptual advancement appears to be promoted especially by the symbolic material and social structure of the Energy Theater environment, in which energy is represented by participants and objects are represented by areas demarcated by loops of rope, and by Energy Theater's embodied action, including body locomotion, gesture, and coordination of speech with symbolic spaces in the Energy Theater arena. Our conclusions are (1) that specific conceptual metaphors can be leveraged to benefit science instruction via the blending of an abstract space of ideas with multiple modes of concrete human action, and (2) that participants’ structured improvisation plays an important role in leveraging the blend for their intellectual development.     

概念隐喻在英语精读课教学中的应用

近年来,隐喻研究得到了认知语言学家的重视。事实上,隐喻不仅是一种修辞格,更是一种认知思维方式。本文探讨概念隐喻在英语精读课教学中的应用,概念隐喻在精读课教学方面的运用是多方面的,对英语精读课的词汇教学和习语教学尤其具有实用价值。     

概念隐喻在日常话语与推理中的认知功能

在传统隐喻理论中,隐喻被看作一种语言现象。在新的隐喻理论框架内,概念隐喻至少具有三种认知功能:建构概念系统;通过相对熟知的经验使抽象概念概念化;提供理解经验的新视角。     

Emerging Technologies in Physics Education

Three emerging technologies in physics education are evaluated from the interdisciplinary perspective of cognitive science and physics education research. The technologies—Physlet Physics, the Andes Intelligent Tutoring System (ITS), and Microcomputer-Based Laboratory (MBL) Tools—are assessed particularly in terms of their potential at promoting conceptual change, developing expert-like problem-solving skills, and achieving the goals of the traditional physics laboratory. Pedagogical methods to maximize the potential of each educational technology are suggested.     

概念隐喻的语篇连贯功能探究——以奥巴马2010年国情咨文为例

语篇连贯一直是语篇分析的重要环节。Lakoff&Johnson的概念隐喻理论从认知语言学的角度拓展了语篇连贯的研究。文章以Lakoff&Johnson的概念隐喻理论作为理论框架,以奥巴马总统2010年国情咨文作为研究语料,试从由单个概念隐喻构成的连贯系统和由多个概念隐喻构成的连贯系统两个层面探究概念隐喻如何起到语篇连贯的作用。     

Understanding Conceptual Change and Science Learning through Educational Neuroscience

Although the field of educational neuroscience has grown in recent years, little research has been conducted on conceptual change and science learning through an educational neuroscience framework. Educational neuroscience is frequently used to study processes of language and mathematics cognition, but is not extensively applied to conceptual change and science learning. This review integrates insights from extant conceptual change educational neuroscience studies to inform the fields of educational psychology and science education. These new insights shed light on the persistence of misconceptions and the roles of error detection, inhibition, executive function, and memory in conceptual change. Future directions for the study of conceptual change and educational neuroscience are discussed.     

Using Metaphorical Models for Describing Glaciers

To date, there has only been little conceptual change research regarding conceptions about glaciers. This study used the theoretical background of embodied cognition to reconstruct different metaphorical concepts with respect to the structure of a glacier. Applying the Model of Educational Reconstruction, the conceptions of students and scientists regarding glaciers were analysed. Students' conceptions were the result of teaching experiments whereby students received instruction about glaciers and ice ages and were then interviewed about their understandings. Scientists' conceptions were based on analyses of textbooks. Accordingly, four conceptual metaphors regarding the concept of a glacier were reconstructed: a glacier is a body of ice; a glacier is a container; a glacier is a reflexive body and a glacier is a flow. Students and scientists differ with respect to in which context they apply each conceptual metaphor. It was observed, however, that students vacillate among the various conceptual metaphors as they solve tasks. While the subject context of the task activates a specific conceptual metaphor, within the discussion about the solution, the students were able to adapt their conception by changing the conceptual metaphor. Educational strategies for teaching students about glaciers require specific language to activate the appropriate conceptual metaphors and explicit reflection regarding the various conceptual metaphors.     

Kuhn and conceptual change: on the analogy between conceptual changes in science and children

This article argues that the analogy between conceptual changes in the history of science and conceptual changes in the development of young children is problematic. We show that the notions of ‘conceptual change’ in Kuhn and Piaget’s projects, the two thinkers whose work is most commonly drawn upon to support this analogy, are not compatible in the sense usually claimed. We contend that Kuhn’s work pertains not so much to the psychology of individual scientists, but to the way philosophers and historians should describe developments in communities of scientists. Furthermore, we argue that the analogy is based on a misunderstanding of the nature of science and the relation between science and common sense. The distinctiveness of the two notions of conceptual change has implications for science education research, since it raises serious questions about the relevance of Kuhn’s remarks for the study of pedagogical issues.     

Towards a Conceptual Profile: Rethinking Conceptual Mediation in the Light of Recent Cognitive and Neuroscientific Findings

One important focus for science education researchers over many years has been the attempts to replace students' commonsense and non-scientific explanations of various phenomena by scientific explanations. The approach we adopted almost three decades ago was conceptual mediation, and this was shown to have a considerable level of success with both conceptual and attitudinal change. However, since that time, advances have been made in the application of both cognitive science and neuroscience to science learning. In particular, evidence has accumulated that, rather than the replacement of the commonsense view, the reality is that learners develop a conceptual profile which includes both the commonsense and the scientific. If this is the case, instead of focussing on conceptual replacement, science educators need to aim more actively at strengthening the learner's executive processes which select contextually appropriate responses and inhibit inappropriate ones. In this paper, the initial development, theoretical basis and the practical applications of conceptual mediation are introduced, following which, these are re-examined in the light of more recent findings. Within this discussion, several potential links to recent cognitive and neuroscientific research are drawn, and these raise issues for further research into the most appropriate teaching approaches for tackling existing non-scientific conceptions.     

Conceptual change research and science education practice: a response from educators

We discuss the eight papers in this issue of Cultural Studies of Science Education focusing on the debate over conceptual change in science education and explore the issues that have emerged for us as we consider how conceptual change research relates to our practice as science educators. In presenting our interpretations of this research, we consider the role of participants in the research process and contextual factors in conducting research on science conceptions, and draw implications for the teaching of science.

英语习语中的概念隐喻

习语是英语的重要组成部分,其最大来源是人类本身的各个部位。Lakoff＆Johnson提出的概念隐喻理论认为隐喻是人们思维、行为和表达思想的一种系统的方式,是通过一个概念去理解另一个概念,即源域向目标域的单方向性映射,也就是跨域映射实现的,在这一过程中,目标域概念的某一（些）元素被凸显,而其他元素则会被隐藏。本文用概念隐喻理论分析了英语中的人体部位习语,发现英语习语里的隐喻使用非常广泛,认为认知语境对于跨域过程中的凸显和隐藏有很大影响,制约着习语的形成和我们对英语习语的运用和理解。     

Confronting Conceptual Challenges in Thermodynamics by Use of Self-Generated Analogies

Use of self-generated analogies has been proposed as a method for students to learn about a new subject by reference to what they previously know, in line with a constructivist perspective on learning and a resource perspective on conceptual change. We report on a group exercise on using completion problems in combination with self-generated analogies to make sense of two thermodynamic processes. The participants (N = 8) were preservice physics teacher students at the fourth year of the teacher education program. The students experienced challenges in accounting for the constant entropy in reversible, adiabatic expansion of an ideal gas and the constant temperature in free, adiabatic expansion of an ideal gas. These challenges were found to be grounded in the students’ intuitive understanding of the phenomena. In order to come to terms with the constant entropy in the first process, the students developed idiosyncratic explanations, but these could by properly adjusted given suitable scaffolding. In contrast, the students by themselves managed to make sense of the constant temperature in free expansion, by use of microscopic explanatory models. As a conclusion, self-generated analogies were found to provide a useful approach to identifying challenges to understanding among students, but also for the students to come to terms with these challenges. The results are discussed against a background of different perspectives on the issue of conceptual change in science education.     

The nature of scientific conceptions: A discursive psychological perspective

Over the past three decades, the literature in science education has accumulated a tremendous amount of research on students’ conceptions—one bibliography currently lists 7000 entries concerning students’ and teachers’ conceptions and science education. Yet despite all of this research and all the advances in the associated conceptual change theory, there is evidence that students’ conceptual talk remains virtually unchanged by instruction even under the best conditions. In this article, I describe and exemplify discursive psychology as a theoretical alternative, which ultimately allows me to understand the solid nature of student talk about scientific phenomena and why science instruction faces such challenges in bringing about conceptual change. To exemplify the presentation of the theory, I draw on videotaped interviews that covered ground similar to the one featured in A Private Universe. This theoretical alternative questions some of the fundamental presuppositions and assumptions made in the constructivist and conceptual change literature—including the locus of the misconceptions, the relation of individual and collective, and the situated and constitutive nature of the talk eliciting (mis-, alternative, pre-, naïve) conceptions. I conclude with some sobering suggestions and recommendations for the praxis of science teaching and the possibility to bring about scientists’ science for and in all students any time in the near future.     

概念隐喻理论及其对外语教学的启示

认知语言学认为隐喻是人类认知抽象概念的方式,在辅助新知识的习得中起着独特的作用。本文就概念隐喻在外语教学具体过程中的词汇教学、句式分析和篇章理解方面的应用进行了阐述,认为教师在教学中可以运用隐喻意识在师生之间的知识或学生新旧知识之间建立联系,增强学生对词汇、篇章的理解能力,进一步提高教学效率。     

试析新闻语篇中的概念隐喻

本文首先从认知的角度出发,对概念隐喻进行了阐释;然后运用实例解析了三种典型的概念隐喻,即战争隐喻,上下隐喻,容器隐喻是如何在新闻语篇中运作的。通过分析,人们能进而确信:隐喻作为一种认知现象,对人类思维方式、语言使用等方面的影响是极其广泛而深刻的。     

基于概念隐喻理论的大学英语教学实证研究

概念隐喻理论为大学英语教学提供了一种新的思路。为了探讨概念隐喻理论指导下的大学英语教学的效果和方法,本研究以青岛某高校两个班级的非英语专业学生为样本进行了教学实验。通过对实验结果的SPSS独立样本分析,得出结论：概念隐喻理论指导下的大学英语教学成果显著,教学效果优于传统教学法。并在此基础上进行了教学方法的总结。     

Varying Use of Conceptual Metaphors across Levels of Expertise in Thermodynamics

Many studies have previously focused on how people with different levels of expertise solve physics problems. In early work, focus was on characterising differences between experts and novices and a key finding was the central role that propositionally expressed principles and laws play in expert, but not novice, problem-solving. A more recent line of research has focused on characterising continuity between experts and novices at the level of non-propositional knowledge structures and processes such as image-schemas, imagistic simulation and analogical reasoning. This study contributes to an emerging literature addressing the coordination of both propositional and non-propositional knowledge structures and processes in the development of expertise. Specifically, in this paper, we compare problem-solving across two levels of expertise—undergraduate students of chemistry and Ph.D. students in physical chemistry—identifying differences in how conceptual metaphors (CMs) are used (or not) to coordinate propositional and non-propositional knowledge structures in the context of solving problems on entropy. It is hypothesised that the acquisition of expertise involves learning to coordinate the use of CMs to interpret propositional (linguistic and mathematical) knowledge and apply it to specific problem situations. Moreover, we suggest that with increasing expertise, the use of CMs involves a greater degree of subjective engagement with physical entities and processes. Implications for research on learning and instructional practice are discussed.     

“晒”词义演变的概念隐喻和概念整合

词义的动态建构过程是多种认知因素互动的结果,词义的变迁和新义项的产生是社会的、认知的、语用的和心理的等综合作用的结果。对“晒”词义构建过程的概念隐喻和概念整合进行研究,力图解释词义变化和词的新义产生的动态过程和认知推理机制。