Cognitive and Conceptual Change in Adolescence

Conceptual changes occur during adolescence, both because students assimilate knowledge about previously unstudied phenomena and because ideas are replaced by more predictive, abstract, or robust notions. We look at cognitive change by focusing broadly on conceptual change, examining increases in understanding as well as the process of abandoning one view for another. We examine the powerful influence of the social context in which learning occurs. This social context gains importance during adolescence in conjunction with increased awareness of social relationships and social influences. We discuss the implications of this research for education and make suggestions concerning future research on instruction and conceptual change. We note two key trends. First, students construct understanding by integrating observations and activities into intuitions following a process similar to that followed by scientists. We call on educators to support and encourage this process rather than labeling these conceptual attainments "misconceptions." Second, we note that learners often overcompartmentalize knowledge into "domains" and therefore fail to recognize parallels in similar situations. If educators foster the constructive process and the broadening of domains they will also encourage conceptual change. In conclusion, we argue that recent interest in complex conceptual change has implications for researchers concerned with all aspects of cognitive change. In particular, we call on those concerned with cognition to test their ideas in the context of complex conceptual change.