1Third Misconceptions Seminar Proceedings (1993) Paper Title: THE PUPIL AS A REFLECTIVE THINKER: A STUDY IN THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL

Abstract: Learning as a conceptual change is today, in the science teaching and learning process, an idea increasingly accepted by researchers and teachers. Although there isn't yet a theory of conceptual change unanimously accepted, many researchers propose different teaching models to promote a conceptual change in the classroom (e.g., Posner et al., 1982; Cosgrove and Osborne, 1985; Gil Perez and Carrascosa, 1985; Driver and Oldham, 1986; Giordan, 1989). Some of them examine the conditions under which a concept is accepted, retained, reorganized or changed, suggesting, simultaneously, activities for the school teaching. This leads to a "constructivistic pedagogy " (Cheung and Taylor, 1991), where one of the main goals is to facilitate the change of personal and diverse ideas of the students to the socially constructed and accepted knowledge of science. In this process a reflective dimension of learning seems to be regarded a