Conceptual Change

Correspondence Discourses are perspectives on learning that assume a radical separation of mental (or internal, or brain-based) and physical (or external, or body-based). That separation sets up the need for a correspondence between what’s happening in the real, objective world and what’s happening in one’s inner, subjective world. Most assume object-based metaphors, linear/direct imagery, and Newtonian mechanics, thus framing learning in terms of acquiring, attaining, inputting, and/or linking.

Coherence Discourses regard distinctions and descriptions as useful devices to make sense of the complex dynamics of learning, but they caution that such devices are mere heuristic conveniences. Coherence Discourses suggest that truths do not exist independently or outside of a system – which is a commentary on humans’ understanding of reality, not a commentary on reality. Most Coherence Discourses employ biological and ecological metaphors, with dynamics framed in evolutionary terms.

Genetic Epistemology is a theory of the genesis/origins of knowing/epistemology, in which learning is framed as an adaptive process in which the principal criteria of personal truth are coherence among elements of understanding and their utility for making sense of one’s own experience, not match between internal, subjective interpretations and external, objective reality. Cognitive Developmentalism is a key element of Genetic Epistemology.

Modes of Reasoning refers to a range of conscious processes used to derive or validate assertions based on established understandings. It is most commonly associated with logical deduction, but humans actually use a range of strategies to generate their truths, including Inductive Reasoning (Bottom-Up Logic), Abductive Reasoning, Analogical Reasoning, and Bounded Rationality. There is broad debate over the relative importance of each of type.

By definition, a “paradigm” is a model or iconic image of something. In the context of discussions of cultural knowledge, the word has come to refer more broadly to internally consistent clusters of concepts, assumptions, and activities. The theory of Paradigm Shifts asserts that the major dynamic in cultural knowledge is not gradual growth, but successive transitions from one paradigm to another – often experienced as revolutionary.

Schema Theory describes how personal knowledge is structured and elaborated. A schema (pl. schemata) is the network of associations that constitutes a concept for someone, and learning is understood as an iterative process of revising schema to maintain their coherence in the face of new experiences, information, and demands. One’s current schemata are the principal determiner of what one will learn through subsequent experiences.