The+Theory+Theory

The claim that children or beginning students have theories in very much the same sense that scientists have them (diSessa, 2006).

This thoery was studied and made most famous by Michael McCloskey when studying how novice students made explanations of physics concepts. He claimed that novice students made observations and proposed content connections that were remarkably coherent and articulate, competing directly with Newtonian physics in instruction. While students may not be able to properly label all concepts according to our terminology, these novice students could make accurate predictions of what would happen and formed complex and coherent explanations for what they observed (diSessa, 2006).

Supported by other researchers such as Allison Gopnik, this theory aligned with the model of conceptual change in which novice students and children were believed to have ideas that were //coherent and integrated// into a whole network of knowledge. Along the lines of this theory, in order to change an idea, the entire knowledge network would need to be revised in order to produce accurate ordering of concepts.

diSessa, Andrea A. "A History of Conceptual Change Research: Threads and Fault Lines." IN the Cambridge Handbook of the Learning Sciences, edited by K. Sawyer, 2006