Conceptual Change in a Microcosm: Comparative Learning Analysis of a Learning Event

This article examines a remarkable learning event where a high school class developed, on its own, a stable, normative view of thermal equilibration. The event is also notable because the intuitive ideas that students bootstrapped into their model of equilibration have been thoroughly documented in prior research. Therefore, the process of changing prior conceptions is well delineated. The main point of the article is to review what happened in...