Abstract This paper introduces the Epistemic Phase Transition Theory (EPTT), a formally specified theoretical framework that reconceptualizes learning as a nonlinear phase transition in epistemic state space. Existing models of conceptual change and learning, including constructivist, developmental, and dynamical systems approaches, provide valuable descriptive accounts but lack a unified formal structure capable of specifying the precise conditions under which stable knowledge structures reorganize. The present theory addresses this gap by defining epistemic state as a multidimensional vector composed of belief coherence, metacognitive integration, and cognitive stability, and by modeling learning as a dynamic trajectory governed by external input, internal resistance, and potential gradient forces within an epistemic landscape. Transformational learning events are formalized as threshold-crossing phase transitions that produce discontinuous reorganization of epistemic structure. The theory provides explicit mathematical formulations describing epistemic state evolution, transition thresholds, and stability dynamics, enabling precise theoretical analysis and future computational implementation. This formalization bridges conceptual change theory, dynamical systems theory, and epistemic cognition research within a unified mathematical framework. The Epistemic Phase Transition Theory offers a foundational formal model for understanding transformational learning, with implications for educational psychology, cognitive science, and the development of computational models of knowledge transformation. Keywords: epistemic cognition, conceptual change, transformational learning, dynamical systems theory, phase transitions, educational psychology, theoretical framework
Jérôme Jaouad Yousfi (Wed,) studied this question.