"A framework is presented for thinking about cognitive factors involved in model construction in the classroom that can help us organize the research problems in this area and the articles in this issue. The framework connects concepts such as: expert consensus model, target model, intermediate models, preconceptions, learning processes, and natural reasoning skills. By connecting and elaborating on these major areas, the articles in this issue have succeeded in moving us another step toward having a theory of conceptual change that can provide guidance to teachers in the form of instructional prin-ciples. Taken together, the articles remind us that individual cognition, while not the only factor in learning, is a central determining feature of learning. However, we must work to further develop the present partial theory of conceptual change to fill in the missing cognitive core of the present shell."
Vanwege zijn opmerking aan het eind van het artikel over een onderscheid dat Helen Doerr noemt explanatory versus expressive modelling:
"Students learn understandings by being immersed in models that are as accurate and rich as possible (as is increasingly made possible by powerful computer simu-lations) versus students learn understandings best via a model evolution process by building on simplified, sparse, intermediate models that are only partially correct (White 1993, Steinberg and Clement 1997). These conflicting views indicate that our field still lacks adequate cognitive theories of conceptual change, and requires intensive efforts in this area. Some of the above dichotomies will not have a single correct choice as an answer but rather the answer `both' or `it depends'. But we must pursue the questions: both in what mixture? or depends on what? We have only begun to satisfy the need to generate instructional principles for guiding the development of lessons and materials. We must expand the present partial theory of conceptual change to fill in the missing core of the present shell."