Beyond knowledge: Learner characteristics influencing conceptual change

Research on conceptual change learning from the 1980s to the early 1990s focused primarily on characterizing learners’ developing knowledge representations, categorizing misconceptions, and designing instructional methods to overcome misconceptions and promote scientific understandings. Since Pintrich, Marx, and Boyle’s (1993) influential article articulating the role of motivation in conceptual change, a “warming trend” has occurred in research and in the development of models of change (Sinatra, 2005). That is, researchers have become increasing interested in the role affective and motivational characteristics play in both fostering and inhibiting change often without the learner’s awareness. In this chapter, we focus on affective and motivational characteristics that learners can bring under their conscious control to foster their own knowledge restructuring (Sinatra & Pintrich, 2003). These include goals, epistemological beliefs, self-efficacy beliefs, interests, and emotions. We examine research demonstrating the influence of these characteristics on conceptual change. We also consider the potential power of these characteristics in promoting change if learners can harness these processes to direct their own learning. Finally, we consider the implication of this view for the development of change pedagogies that might support the development of learner controlled knowledge restructuring.