A topic in Learners' conceptions and thinking
Concepts are linked into larger conceptual structures. (Read about conceptual structure here.) These structures may show different levels of integration, depending upon the extent of linking between the concepts.
"In order that thinking might not degenerate into 'metaphysics', or into empty talk, it is only required that enough propositions of the conceptual system be firmly enough connected with sensory experiences and that the conceptional system, in view of its task of ordering and surveying sense experience, should show as much unity and parsimony as possible."
Albert Einstein, 1994
Generally speaking, expertise is associated with greater conceptual integration, and novices then to have less well integrated conceptual structures.
Developments in science
One aspect of the progress of science, has been a shift towards greater conceptual integration.
"The scientific way of forming concepts differs from that we use in our everyday life, not basically, but merely in the more precise definition of concepts and conclusions; more painstaking and systematic choice of experimental material; and greater logical economy. By this last we mean that the effort to reduce all concepts and correlations to as few as possible logically independent basic concepts and axioms.
…from the very beginning there has always been present the attempt to find a unifying theoretical basis for all these single sciences, consisting of a minimum of concepts and fundamental relationships, from which all the concepts and relationships of the single disciplines might be derived by a logical process."
Einstein, 1940
For example, in physics, Maxwell brought together electricity, magnetism and light under a common conceptual framework. In biology, natural selection has provided an integrating framework for consider all of the world's biota. In chemistry the periodic table allowed systematisation of knowledge that helps integrate chemistry.
"Although it is true that it is the goal of science to discover rules which permit the association and foretelling of facts, this is not its only aim. It also seeks to reduce the connections discovered to the smallest possible number of mutually independent conceptual elements. It is in this striving after the rational unification of the manifold that it encounters its greatest successes…"
Albert Einstein, 1939
A principle such as the conservation of energy is expected to apply across all of science, and some physicists see the possibility of a GUT (grand unifying theory) subsuming the four types of force (gravity as well as electromagnetism, and the weak force and the strong nuclear force) as a kind of 'holy grail' of science.
Progression in learning
Therefore one feature we might expect to find in students' progression in learning in science is to come to better integrate their concepts, find more coherence between different topics, and to recognise connections between different areas of science (such as recognising that not only is the Born-Haber cycle an example of Hess's law, but that this is also related to the conservation of energy).
Fragmentation learning impediments
Learning science involves making a lot of connections. New teaching is normally intended to link with previously learned material, and often prerequisite knowledge which is necessary for making proper sense of the new ideas. Sometimes students do not make the expected links, and this my impede a full understanding of the concepts they have been taught. This is one kind of 'learning bug' that occurs in the teaching-learning system where the associations the teacher assumes are already present in a learner's conceptual structure are lacking – a 'fragmentation learning impediment'.
(Read about using diagnostic assessment in teaching to identify such 'bugs'.)
The posts on this site include examples of such fragmentation learning impediments, where students have not made the connections expected in their science learning.
Work cited:
- Einstein, Albert (1939/1994), Science and religion. In Ideas and Opinions, New York: The Modern Library.
- Einstein, Albert (1940/1994) The fundamentals of theoretical physics. In Ideas and Opinions, New York: The Modern Library.
- Einstein, Albert (1994), Remarks on Bertrand Russell's theory of knowledge. In Ideas and Opinions, New York: The Modern Library.
