Alternative conceptions persist alongside scientific conceptions and resist change even after instruction¶

Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study · theoretical r2 · q1
Currency · newest study 2018 · not yet checked against its sources · not reviewed by a person · overdue for a recheck since 2023: baselines and conditions change

Subclaims¶

q1 i? The individual conceptual system is marked by the coexistence of scientific conceptions and persisting alternative conceptions, with inhibition varying by expertise, and classical instruction shows limits in efficiency at replacing conceptions. → Alexandra Renouard and Yves Mazabraud 2018

Evidence¶

Alexandra Renouard and Yves Mazabraud 2018¶

Alexandra Renouard and Yves Mazabraud. (2018). Context-based learning for Inhibition of alternative conceptions: the next step forward in science education. npj Science of Learning 3:10. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41539-018-0026-9

q1 · i? · theoretical · r2

Theoretical argument in the article, attributed to prior behavioral and brain-imaging literature (e.g., work cited as showing scientific knowledge suppresses but does not supplant earlier intuitions). The article offers this synthesis: the system is "a conflictual, but dynamic and evolving system". Not a new empirical result.

"the individual conceptual system is a conflictual, but dynamic and evolving system, marked by the coexistence of scientific conceptions and persisting alternative conceptions, more or less inhibited according to the individual ’s expertize."

Discussion¶

Related Claims¶

• Naive science ideas are extremely persistent and probably never disappear even after extensive training such as a Ph.D. in physics, so conceptual change as replacement may never truly be achieved — possibly the same claim (merge candidate)
• Scientists with a Ph.D. in physics are less accurate when judging the scientific value of incongruent statements that trigger naive ideas than matched congruent statements, in both physics and biology — related
• Instruction that confronts science misconceptions (conceptual-conflict interventions, refutation text) produces conceptual change more often than standard exposition — related
• When physicists with a Ph.D. confront naive ideas in their domain of expertise, MFG and IFG associated with inhibitory control are significantly more activated by incongruent than congruent statements — related
• Intermediate mechanics students start the semester more familiar with the integration constants (+C) method than with the limits method, and the +C method remains preferred by at least one student even after instruction modeling the limits method — related
• Metaconceptual teaching activities shifted all four 7th-grade participants from alternative conceptions to scientifically accurate understanding of the republic — reports the opposite