A study was conducted to determine the effectiveness of in‐depth, conceptually integrated instruction delivered via a videodisc program in eliminating children's alternative frameworks in science. Prior to instruction, pupils in two eighth‐grade science classes, one of higher ability and one of lower ability, were interviewed to document their alternative frameworks (informal knowledge) for explaining two science phenomena. Interviews after instruction showed that students of both ability groups did not retain their alternative frameworks. This contradicts other research findings that children's alternative frameworks are extremely resistant to change and must be directly addressed during instruction for conceptual change to occur. A well‐designed science curriculum that was intelligible, plausible, and fruitful, but did not directly address alternative frameworks during instruction, changed 92% of the alternative frameworks held by students to scientific understandings.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.