BAB 3

STUDYING CONCEPTUAL CHANGE :

CONSTRUCTING NEW UNDERSTANDING

OLEH :
NAMA
: KARTINI EDNI
NIM
: 8146141012
KELAS
: A (REGULER)
PROGRAM PASCASARJANA
UNIVERSITAS NEGERI MEDAN
2014

Introduction
The goal of this article is to review recent
results on conceptual change and to
attempt to set research agendas for
studying the conceptual change process.
So far the considerable effort we have
spent as a research community identifying
the alternative conceptions which students
hold and quantitying to what extent these
conceptions change as a result of various
types of instruction.

Conceptual Change
Carey describes two possible senses of what
she calls "knowledge restructuring", weak and
strong.
In weak restructuring, concepts are not
changed, rather their applications are either
extended, restricted, or rearranged.
Knowledge restructuring in the strong sense
involves changes in the concepts themselves
i. e. conceptual change. For Carey,
rearrangement without changes in the concepts
is not conceptual change.

What is it that is changing?

The position is that conceptions are fundamental beliefs
about how the world works which individuals form in
response to experiences and in concert with others. It is
a matter of what sense the world makes rather than
describing what is. We find describing the world as it is is
neither possible nor is it a productive way to think about
teaching and learning.
Briefly, one sees "alternative conception" used to
describe the incorrect answer students give to specific
questions. One also sees it associated with the particular
physical situation in which students give answers which
differ from those of the scientist.

From a constructivist perspective the nature

of the instructional enterprise differently
than is traditional. We do not see its
function as the delivery of a more accuratepicture of reality to the students or leading
the students to scientific knowledge. For us
understanding cannot be transmitted, it
must be built by the individual.

Categories of Conceptual Change

Toward a taxonomy of conceptual change

Identyfy categories of conceptual change which
are functionally useful in the classroom. It
appears that conceptual change can be
organized into a taxonomy. The categories in
this taxonomy are characterized by unique
changes in the representations of conceptions
from the pre-conception to the postconception and by unique features of the
strategies which seem to induce the type of
conceptual change represented by that
category.

Three potential categories as a start for a taxonomy:

1. Differentiation
2. Class extension
3. Reconceptualization
If such a taxonomy can be built which includes
examples of conceptual change that are known and if
it can be defended on both a logical basis and on the
basis that it informs effective teaching for conceptual
change, then indeed the taxonomy would be a major
contribution to the field. It would enable us to probe
the nature of conceptual change in greater depth and
it could be used by teaches to assist decision making
in the classroom.

Class Extension Another conceptual change process

which seems to constitute a taxonomic cat class
extension.

If we find that all conceptual changes can be

understood as being members of categories such
as those describe above, and that those
categories are associated with general strategies
which can be instantiated for each member of the
category, then we will have a powerful tool for
inducing conceptual change-one that could be
applied to new examples of conceptual change,
should they be found to fit an existing category.
Even if some examples of conceptual change defy
this categorization, as long as a majority do not,
the taxonomy will be useful. it would not be
constructive to wage long arguments over the
"reality" of the taxonomic categories.
Debate over taxonomy for the taxonomy's sake, I
believe would be a perversion of its utility.

Initiating Connceptual
Change : Disequilibration

I find it useful to think of change in

the knowledge state of a learner in
terms of assimilations,
accomodations and
disequilibrations. these terms were
initially introduced in the context of
learning by Piaget and are
important to my notions of
conceptual change because they
are useful, from the standpoint of
learning and pedagogy, for
describing the necessary conditions
for conceptual change.

 Assimilation

is the regocnition that an event (physical

or metal) fits an existing conception
(Glasersfeld,1987). Assimilations strengthen existing
beliefs or convictions.
If students can assimilate events (words, ideas,
experiences) presented in the course of instruction,
then there is no disequilibration and no conceptual
change. Thus, the point of instruction should be to
induce conceptual change. it cannot accomplish this
without causing disequilibration.
Accommodation is a change in a belief about how the
world works, that is, a change is a conception, which
enables an event to be assimilated that could not have
been assimilated under previously held conceptions.

 For

accommodation to occur a student must

become motivated to change by entering a
state of cognitive disequilibration : sometimes
profound, sometimes not, but always a
disequilibration. Disequilibration can occur
when the student's expectations are not met,
that is when an event does not fit with the
student's existing beliefs.
It should be noted, before going on, that
disequilibration is not contadiction. The latter
refers to a logical inconsistency whereas
disequilibration is a conceptual incongruity.
Disequilibration is not a consequence of formal,
truth-valued statement, but, rather, of the
sureprice produced when an expected event
does not occur. conceptual change does not
depend on contracdition, but on

Nurturing conceptual
change
If we stopped at the point of disequilibration students we would
quickly find that our efforts had largely been a waste of time. if
students are not given a change to build new conceptions when they
find the old ones no longer satisfactory many conclude thT they "just
cannot do science"
The observer who suggestr that the examples cited herein are just
what used to be called discovery learning misses some subtle and
profound points. All to frequently instruction becomes a game of
"guess the answer the instructor wants". thinking about a
phenomenon and what makes sense is abandoned.
The instructor participates by giving hints which
many time have nothing to do with reasoning about
the phenomena (Barnes, 1986).

STUDYING CONCEPTUAL
CHANGE
That we are beginning to focus our attention
on the process of conceptual change is a
consequence of the fact that we are beginning
to focus our teaching efforts in such a way as
to cause conceptual change to occur. the
challenge as we start to study something for
the first time is in how to record and describe
it for extended, in-depth analysis.

Items for a research agenda studying conceptual

change :
1. we need to be able to describe conceptual change
in detail
2. attempt to reach consensus on the nature of
conceptions
3. identify categories of conceptual change which
are functionally in the classroom
4. investigate the nature of disequilibration
5. investigate the process of nurturing conceptual
change
6. devise methods which can be used by teachers
in the classroom to determine whether
conceptual change has occured

TERIMA
KASIH