Conceptual Change via Contrasting Everyday and Scientifically Idealized Contexts

This article presents a theoretical model for conceptual change that relates cognitive conflict and the role of context. The model assumes that students derive alternative conceptions from everyday contexts while scientific concepts presume an idealized context, and hence, that the source of cognitive conflict results from the difference between the two contexts. Test results and analysis of the model are presented by applying it in a class studying the inertial motion of bodies. The subjects are 37 seventh grade boys.