Investigating the relationship between refutational text and conceptual change

The aim of this study was to identify the type of conceptual change (assimilation or accommodation) that can be induced by a refutational text. Individual interviews were carried out with a stratified sample of eighty‐seven grade 9 students. Forty‐four percent of them were found to have a misconception about the concept of ecological role—they believed that some living things do not have a role in nature. These 36 students were asked to read either a text that refuted the misconception, or a control text that consisted of a didactic explanation of ecological role. They then participated in an immediate posttest and a delayed posttest. Surprisingly, both texts were able to induce accommodation in a large proportion of the students. Factors such as the high motivation of the students, encouragement of metacognition, age‐readiness of the students, and a relative lack of robustness of the misconception were considered to have greatly facilitated the conceptual change process. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Sci Ed 87: 663–684, 2003; Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI 10.1002/sce.1056