3-077 - Relations Between Intuitive Thinking and Scientific Understanding Across Development

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Integrative Statement

It is increasingly evident that learning in STEM disciplines is a matter of conceptual change. Developmental cognitive scientists and educators alike acknowledge that students do not arrive at the science classroom as blank slates, but rather have developed complex and adaptive intuitive conceptual systems for understanding the world around them. Thus, science education represents the interplay of intuitive concepts and introduced scientific concepts. Although some intuitive conceptions may help scaffold formal scientific understanding, others render particular scientific concepts deeply challenging to teach and to learn. Thus, it is critically important to understand the nature and content of intuitive understandings in order to best inform STEM education practices.

In this symposium, we consider the interplay of intuitive thinking and the acquisition of scientific understanding in two STEM disciplines and across a broad spectrum of developmental time, highlighting basic research on conceptual development as well as applications for science education. The first paper documents relations between intuitive thinking and misconceptions in biology among undergraduate biology majors, demonstrating the persistence and potential impact of intuitive understanding on advanced science education. The following papers demonstrate the efficacy of teaching seemingly complex concepts—related to evolutionary biology and space science, respectively—to early elementary school students, before competing intuitive notions are deeply entrenched. Discussion will put this work into broader perspective of the interplay of science and intuition. Taken together, this session will illuminate the critical role of intuitive thinking in the acquisition of scientific understanding across development.

Sub Unit

• Cognitive Processes

Chair

• John D Coley, Northeastern University

Discussant

• Andrew Shtulman, Occidental College

Individual Presentations

• Relations Between Intuitive Biological Thought and Scientific Misconceptions in Undergraduate Biology Majors and Non-Majors - Presenting Author: John D Coley, Northeastern University; Nicole Betz, Northeastern University; Yian Xu, Northeastern University; Jessica Leffers, Northeastern University; Kristin de Nesnera, San Francisco State University; Kimberly Tanner, San Francisco State University

• Learning and Generalizing Natural Selection in Early Elementary School: Implications for Instruction and Science Standards - Presenting Author: Deb Kelemen, Boston University; Natalie Emmons, Boston University; Kristin Lees, Northeastern University; Laura J Nelson, Boston Children's Hospital

• Overcoming Unscientific Intuitive Conceptions in Space Science: Actions Speak Louder than Words - Presenting Author: Florencia K Anggoro, College of the Holy Cross; Benjamin Jee, Worcester State University