2.4 Conceptual development
Concepts are generalisations based on particular features relating to different objects or events. They allow us to ‘use past experience in dealing with new experience’ (Harlen and Jelly, 1989, p. 69). Some concepts are concrete, such as ‘plant’ or ‘beach’, while others are abstract, such as ‘biodiversity’ or ‘erosion’. Watts explained that:
We each have a ‘mental’ store in which our ideas and experiences are organised, so that similar ones are grouped together. In such a group there will be a general definition of the topic, some specific related pieces of knowledge and an idea of the contexts in which it is applicable. These broad, organising groupings are known as concepts, and are an essential aspect of developing understanding.
Children can become confused when they are introduced to new scientific concepts. The constructivist theory of learning explains that children have pre-existing ideas about the world and how it works. These ideas and conceptual frameworks will have developed through their experience (both in and outside of school), from the way ideas are talked about by their family and friends, and how they are portrayed in the media. This can result in children developing ‘alternative frameworks’ or ‘misconceptions’.
Because prior knowledge and intuitive ideas are ‘anchors’ for conceptual development (Pine et al., 2001), children need time and opportunities to explore and develop their conceptual understanding (Mooney, 2013). Across the curriculum, teaching should ensure that children reconstruct ‘faulty alternative’ frameworks and change their conceptual understanding, to restructure what has been previously learned. This is particularly the case in science, as Vosniadou et al. pointed out:
… scientific explanations of physical phenomena often violate fundamental principles of intuitive physics, which are confirmed by our everyday experience. For this reason learning science requires the radical reorganization of existing conceptual structures and not just their enrichment, and the creation of new, qualitatively different representations.