According to constructivist theory, learning can be viewed as a process of conceptual change. Conceptual change, within this realm, implies that a learner actively replaces existing prescientific conceptions with scientifically acceptable explanations as new propositional linkages are formed in her/his conceptual framework. Wang & Andre (1991), states that the conceptual change approach to science instruction represents an alternative approach designed to encourage students to alter preconceptions and is based on Piaget’s notions of assimilation, accommodation, and disequilibrium.

Piagetian theory was adapted by Posner, Strike, Hewson, and Gertzog (1982) into an instructional strategy and provided an explanation for how conceptual change might occur. They recommended that accommodation will begin when there is dissatisfaction with an existing conception; then it will proceed as the student considers a new conception to be more intelligible, plausible, and fruitful and this plays a key role in the process of conceptual change.

Conceptual change strategy can be used for this purpose by using conceptual change texts. These texts are designed to change students’ alternative conceptions and focus on strategies to promote conceptual change by challenging students’ alternative conceptions, producing dissatisfaction, followed by a correct explanation which is both understandable and plausible to the students. In these texts, the identified alternative conceptions of the students are given first, alternative conceptions are activated by presenting them with situations designed to elicit a prediction based on them and alternative conceptions are challenged by introducing common alternative conceptions followed by evidence that they are wrong. Finally, students are informed of the correct explanations supported by examples. Learning about science in a meaningful way involves realizing, reorganizing or replacing existing conceptions to accommodate new ideas (Smith & Blakeslee, 1993).

Chambers and Andre (1997), investigated the effect of conceptual change texts on students’ understanding and showed that subjects who received a conceptual change text instruction significantly improved their performance in their understanding of electricity concepts as compared to traditional texts. Also Hynd et al. (1994) reported the effectiveness of conceptual change texts on bringing about conceptual change and promoting meaningful learning in students regarding Newton’s laws of motion.

Koray and Tatar (2003) designated the misconceptions concerning the mass and weight and investigated how misconceptions formed according to level of class. The results from data analyzing that students have some misconceptions about mass and weight. 

The purpose of this study was to examine the effectiveness of instruction based on conceptual change texts over standard science instruction on sixth grade students’ understanding of mass, weight concepts. Recently various teaching strategies and materials based on conceptual change approach were developed. One of them is conceptual change texts and their importance was presented by way of various studies on different science subjects. In this study, effectiveness of conceptual change texts on reorganization of concepts about mass and weight subject was determined. The specific question of this study was: Is there a significant difference between effects of conceptual change oriented instruction and standard science instruction on sixth grade students’ understanding of mass, weight concepts?

Chambers, S., & Andre, T. (1997). Gender, prior knowledge, interest and experience in electricity and conceptual change text manipulations in learning about direct current, Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 34, 107-123. Koray, Ö., Tatar, N., (2003) Mass And Weight With Elementary School Students And these misconceptions related misconceptions 6, 7 And 8 Distribution of Class Level, Pamukkale University Journal of the Faculty of Education, 13,187-198 . Hewson, M.G., & Hewson, P. W. (1983), Effect of instruction using students’ prior knowledge and conceptual change strategies on science learning, Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 20 (8) ,731-743. Hynd, C. R., McWhorter, J. Y., Phares, V. L., & Suttles, C. W. (1994). The role of instructional variables in conceptual change in high school physics topics. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 31, 933-946. Posner, G., Strike, K., Hewson, P., & Gertzog, W. (1982). Accommodation of a scientific conception: Toward a theory of conceptual change, Science Education, 66, 211-227. Smith, E., & Blakeslee, T. (1993). Teaching strategies associated with conceptual change learning in science, Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 30(2), 111126. Wang, T., & Andre, T. (1991). Conceptual change text and application questions versus no questions in learning about electricity. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 16, 103-116.