Recent research has indicated that it is surprisingly difficult to achieve conceptual understanding in many fundamental topics in science. The primary focus of this project will be learning studies aimed at fostering conceptual understanding, where individuals or pairs of students are taken through a lesson sequence and encouraged to think aloud during the sequence. A specific goal of the project is to develop exemplary lessons that can foster conceptual change in difficult areas. A more general goal is to identify critical learning processes and teaching strategies in successful science lessons that can guide curriculum developers and teacher trainers in other science areas. On the basis of preliminary studies, we propose to develop a set of learning study methodologies that use a combination of descriptive and experimental methods. In addition to whether students are learning from the lessons, the studies will focus on identifying which teaching strategies are critical and why students are learning from them. Major outcomes of the project will include: (1) a set of exemplary science lessons for promoting conceptual change; (2) new methodologies for conducting learning studies in educational research; (3) descriptions of critical learning processes; and (4) descriptions of general teaching strategies for use in science lessons in other areas.
