Thinking about sound: children's changing conceptions

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Abstract
This paper explores how elementary children construct meaning during a classroom science unit on sound. It focuses on the complexity of children's thinking and on factors which influence children to change their ideas or to change the teacher's science to make it compatible with their ideas. The status of children's conceptual changes is open to several interpretations, and any models of conceptual change must accommodate this range of children's thought processes. This paper examines how the ideas of a small group of elementary children change during the classroom presentation of a unit on sound. The theoretical basis of this examination is the constructivist view of learning initially described by Kelly [1955] and expanded upon in alternative framework research [Driver, 1981; Driver & Bell, 1986; Osborne, Bell, & Gilbert, 1983; Pope & Gilbert, 1983; Pope & Keen, 1981]. The discussion begins with a review of theories concerning the process of conceptual change and strategies that have been devised to bring children's ideas into greater agreement with teachers’ and scientists’ science. Scientists’ science is the “generally accepted scientific viewpoint regarding any particular aspect of science” (Osborne, Bell, & Gilbert, 1983, p. 1]. Each teacher gives his or her own version and interpretation of scientists’ science during classroom presentation. This version is called the teacher's science.