TY - JOUR
AU - Watts, D. Michael
AB - Studies in Science Education, 10 (1983), 61-98 Concepts, Misconceptions and Alternative Conceptions: Changing Perspectives in Science Education JOHN K. GILBERT and D. MICHAEL WATTS Department of Educational Studies, University of Surrey 1. INTRODUCTION Since the early 1970's there has emerged, on a world-wide basis, a strong interest in research into content- and context-dependent learning in science. Starting with individual papers e.g. Doran (1972), the pace has quickened through the production of theses e.g. Driver (1973), the organisation of conferences e.g. Archenhold et al. (1980), Sutton and West (1982), to the appearance of books e.g. Driver (1983). However the field shows signs of still being, using Kuhn's (1970) terminology, in a pre-paradigmatic phase. There is no general agreement on the aims of enquiry, the methods to be used, criteria for appraising data, the use to be made of the outcomes. For any coherence to appear in the field (Gilbert and Swift (1982)) some semantic knots will have to be untied. One of these concerns the episte- mological and ontological status of the descriptors used for the outcomes of such studies. They are severally referred to as 'misconceptions' e.g. Helm (1980), 'pre­ conceptions' (e.g. Novak (1977)), 'alternative conceptions' (Driver and Easley 
TI - Concepts, Misconceptions and Alternative Conceptions: Changing Perspectives in Science Education
JF - Studies in Science Education
DO - 10.1080/03057268308559905
DA - 1983-01-01
UR - https://www.deepdyve.com/lp/taylor-francis/concepts-misconceptions-and-alternative-conceptions-changing-Gbuqhnx7T1
SP - 61
EP - 98
VL - 10
IS - 1
DP - DeepDyve
ER -