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If I had to reduce all of educational psychology to just one principle, 1 would say this:The most important single factor influencing learning is what the learner already knows. Ascertain this and teach him accordingly[ I , p vi]. IntroductionWith knowledge of what the learner brings to an instructional setting recognized as such a vital component in planning educational programs, it should have become an important stimulus to educational research. One area where this has been true in both science education and other fields has been the research which uses as a starting point Piaget's perspective on intellectual development.* Such research into reasoning and logical skills is important and has useful educational applications. But another aspect of what the learner brings to the classroom has not received much attention recently-that is the substance of the actual beliefs and concepts held by children.+ Piaget refers to this distinction as physical or experiential knowledge as contrasted with operational or logico-mathematical knowledge[ I 11.The absence of certain logical structures may place certain constraints upon the ability of children to develop reasoned arguments or understand more abstract and formalized concepts. However, it must not be forgotten that physical or conceptual knowledge is the substance of our intellectual repertoire that is used to communicate thoughts and ideas to others. Furthermore, it is the principal subject of both classroom and scientific discourse. It follows then that the substance of children's thinking is an important area of inquiry. The ProblemThis paper is concerned with the substantive aspects of children's thinking about heat and temperature. It addresses two issues in this regard. First it attempts to illustrate one * The recent issues of Science Educution and thc Joirrr~ul o/ Kewuri~h itr Science Teachittg abound with rcxarch reports and position papers outlining rcccnt developments in thih area. t There arc at least two notable exceptions to this claim. The studies carried out by: Easley. Witz, and their collcagues at the University of Illinois, (e.g.. Albert(21, Driver[3], Golshan[4], Triplett[S], and Witz and L%sley[6]); and those of Novak and his colleagues at Cornell University (e.g.. Hibband and Novak[7], McClclland[X], Novak[9], and Nussbaum and Novak[lO]). Scicnce Education 6 3 ( 2 ) : 221 -230 (1979) ic, I979 John Wiley &Sons, Inc.

This study identified a number of conceptions of solubility elicited from grade 11 students in individual interviews. These conceptions were grouped into six categories related to the students' preferred explanations for solubility phenomena: (a) physical transformation from solid to liquid; (b) chemical transformation of solute; (c) density of solute; (d) amount of space available in solution; (e) properties of solute; and (f) size of solute particles. The findings from this study raised three general issues regarding chemistry learning. The first of these is the critical role played by students' “everyday knowledge” in their understanding and interpretation of solution phenomena. A second issue was the tendency for students to extend their understanding of properties of materials at the macroscopic level to the microscopic level. And, finally, the issue of the discrepancy between the meanings implied by the students' language and the teacher's intended meanings through their use of a technical vocabulary. This article argues that an understanding of the typical conceptions used by students should form an integral component of chemistry teaching, both as points of origin for lesson planning and for the development of curricular materials. It also calls for more collaborative work between teachers and researchers to help facilitate a better understanding of student learning for all concerned. © 1996 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

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Thirty two children (6 to 13 years) of average ability from three schools in Vancouver were interviewed about their beliefs regarding the phenomenon of inheritance. The study was purely exploratory. No hypothesis was tested. The subjects were exposed to five tasks, comprising twelve pictures, one live plant specimen and twenty questions. The first three tasks were designed to find out whether the subjects could differentiate between environmentally induced deformities and inherited traits in living organisms. The last two tasks were designed to find out whether the subjects invoke probability thinking in predicting the outcome of an offspring's inherited traits or not. The data collected was analyzed using tabular techniques: (a) Frequency distribution table. (b) Question-Response table. The results indicate that a large proportion of the subjects from the various age groups had difficulties differentiating between environmental deformities and inherited traits. Since the difficulties and the successes with the three tasks investigating the problem were found in all the age groups, it was suggested that possibly the acquisition of this concept is not dependent on age but is rather a function of the subject's experiences. On the other hand, the development of the thinking related to the making of probabilistic predictions was believed to be developmental. Younger subjects (6 to 9 years) were rigid and predicted with certainty; whereas the older subjects (10 to 13 years) made very imprecise and tentative predictions about the outcome of the offspring. i i i This finding and others which are reported in this study about children's thinking regarding the phenomenon of inheritance, should help the curriculum developer and the classroom teacher in deciding how best appropriate learning opportunities could be provided for children (average ability) of the age groups that were studied.