This research examined the relationship between content instruction and the development of elementary teacher candidates' understanding of conceptual change pedagogy. Undergraduate students (n = 27) enrolled in two sections of a science methods course received content instruction through either traditional or conceptual change methods, followed by instruction about conceptual change pedagogy. Candidates were interviewed pre‐ and postinstruction about their content and pedagogical knowledge and also wrote conceptual change lessons. Twelve of the 27 subjects were videotaped teaching in the field. Results indicate that prior to instruction, most candidates had weak content knowledge and held traditional pedagogical conceptions. After instruction, students in the conceptual change group had significantly larger gains in their content knowledge than those in the traditional group, gave qualitatively stronger pedagogical responses, and used conceptual change strategies more consistently in practice. These results indicate that personal experience of learning science content through conceptual change methods facilitated the development of understanding and use of conceptual change pedagogy in teaching practice. Thus if conceptual change methods are to be incorporated into teacher candidates' repertoire, science content courses that students take prior to teacher education should be taught using conceptual change pedagogy. In addition, courses in science education should use pedagogy more in line with that taught in methods courses.

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A key principle of the Conceptual Change Model is that before learners can consider the plausibility or fruitfulness of a new conception, they must first find it intelligible, which entails access to appropriate modes of representation of the conception. In this article, we explore the application of this principle to the problematic situation of teachers' understanding of conceptual change learning and teaching. Five key conceptions have been singled out for analysis: intelligibility, plausibility, and fruitfulness, together with the conceptions of learning as conceptual change and the nature of conceptual change teaching. Representations of these conceptions, drawn largely from the literature on conceptual change, have been organized around a framework originally developed for representing scientific conceptions in terms of verbal and symbolic definitions, images, exemplars, and analogies/metaphors. Drawing together these representations of key conceptions has accented the diversity of meanings attributed to them. The analysis of conceptions into different representational modes has value to both science teachers and teacher educators in planning how to render key conceptions more readily intelligible to students, as well as evaluating students' work and interpreting classroom discourse. This evaluative use of the representational framework also highlights its potential as a tool for reflection by both students and teachers on their own understandings. © 1996 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

The purposes of this study were to (a) determine whether the conditions of the accommodation of a science conception (IPDF) could be applied to pedagogical conceptions of science, and (b) using this application, determine whether a group of elementary teacher candidates in a conceptual change methods course accommodated their didactic preconceptions of science teaching. This research was based on the assumption that, for teachers to learn to teach for conceptual change, they must undergo a process of pedagogical conceptual change themselves. The teacher candidates in this study were interviewed and observed teaching. Their lesson plans and reflective papers were analyzed. The course was also videotaped to provide contextual descriptions. The teacher candidates, as expected, held primarily didactic pedagogical conceptions and were resistant to the conceptual change strategies. However, at posttest they found the new strategies to be intelligible, plausible, and fruitful. They also expressed implicit dissatisfaction with their preexisting views. Cooperating teachers had significant influence in the development of both plausibility and fruitfulness. Recommendations for improving the use of the conceptual change constructs in future teacher education research are made.

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