1Third Misconceptions Seminar Proceedings (1993) Paper Title: On Some Problems of How Learners ’ Knowledge is Interconnected in the Understanding of Scientific Concepts: A case study of the concept of “weight ” and its related matters

Abstract: However, it is rather obvious that not the whole problems of learning and teaching of science have been clarified so far. We still have a serious problem to be solved concerning the ways in which one’s knowledge and concepts which he/she obtains from public school education are stored in his/her memory and what kind of such knowledge and concepts are maintained in his/her memory. The purpose of this study is to clarify how a certain newly obtained piece of knowledge and concept can be comprehended by the students in Japan before they study them at school and after a certain long time has since the first study of them. We can regard our problem as that of how the association pattern of knowledge in one’s understanding can be changed by his/her learning activities. Osborne and Freyberg (1985) have pointed out the same problem. White (1990) and others (for example, Baird and Mitchell, 1986) have also pointed out the significance of the problem