Categories: Alternative conceptions
Examples of how learners understood the status of theories:
"[a theory is] someone's opinion…it's like a hypothesis or something"
'Anita', 13-14 year old reported in Taber, K. S., Billingsley, B., Riga, F., & Newdick, H. (2015). English secondary students' thinking about the status of scientific theories: consistent, comprehensive, coherent and extensively evidenced explanations of aspects of the natural world – or just 'an idea someone has'. The Curriculum Journal, 1-34. doi: 10.1080/09585176.2015.1043926
"[a theory is] an opinion of someone, that can be proven right or wrong [by] proof, definitely proof"
'Colin', 13-14 year old reported in Taber, K. S., Billingsley, B., Riga, F., & Newdick, H. (2015). English secondary students' thinking about the status of scientific theories: consistent, comprehensive, coherent and extensively evidenced explanations of aspects of the natural world – or just 'an idea someone has'. The Curriculum Journal, 1-34. doi: 10.1080/09585176.2015.1043926
Read about learners ideas of scientific theories
