2.9 Posne r et. al.
Posner et. al. (1982) explored the possibilities of developing a conceptual change theory.
Their article looks into the conditions that occur when conceptual change occurs in a student’s
mind and what does not occur when a less than scientific concept persists even after instruction.
In summary of their discussion, conceptual change can only occur when a student “…can
psychologically construct a coherent meaningful representation of a theory…” (Posner, et al., p
217). That meaningful representation is not necessarily a scientific conception, but a
representation that works for the student.