Meeting Educational Objectives in the Affective and Cognitive Domains: Personal and Social Constructivist Perspectives on Enjoyment, Motivation and Learning Chemistry - Affective Dimensions in Chemistry Education - page 19

their social milieu (Kuhn, 1996 ), then how much more suggestible may young
learners in school classrooms be?
Unfortunately, this is likely to mean students in science classes sometimes being
persuaded by teaching because their friends seem to be, rather than because they
have understood and been convinced by the logical case for what is being taught.
We might say they are persuaded affectively but not cognitively. They may be
genuinely committed to the new ideas, but not based upon the intellectual merits of
those ideas.
It seems unlikely that such affectively motivated acceptance will lead directly to
long-term conceptual change if it is not supported by cognitive grounds for con-
ceptual change: yet, it may well be that such social factors could lead to a
predisposition to consider and value the cognitive arguments for conceptual
change, which may be a useful

that teachers can make use of when teaching
challenging material. This then is an area where more research would be useful.
Earlier in the chapter, it was suggested that it may sometimes be necessary for
learners to offer provisional acceptance of ideas that do not yet seem convincing,
trusting their teacher when ideas initially do not seem to make sense to them: yet,
solidarity with peers who may share alternative conceptions or have thinking
dominated by the lifeworld attitude (Schutz & Luckmann, 1973 ) could act to
impede acceptance of scientific ideas. It is a scientific value to be open to dispas-
sionately exploring and considering new ideas, even when these seem counter-
intuitive and competing with other ideas we currently find perfectly fit for pur-
pose—yet, it may compete with a value to conform with the apparent belief systems
of peer groups and of significant adults such as parents.
This analysis then suggests that social factors may complicate teaching for
conceptual change through the different ways they can act as motivators. The
influence of the social context on affective factors in learning is more nuanced
and situated, varying case on case and even at different stages in the local classroom
career of a particular group of students. This seems like an important focus for
classroom research that takes into account not only the nature of a teacher

lever

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teaching, and the cognitive factors influencing learning, but also how social net-
works complicate the motivational factors at work.

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5 Conclusions

The space available here has only allowed a brief exploration of how constructivist
ideas as they are commonly understood in science education relate to affective
factors. Yet, two general observations can be offered.
Firstly, as might be expected, a social constructivist perspective offers a more
complex view of learning than a personal constructivist view, such that it is seen
that the same factors can work for or against intended learning depending upon
nuances of the social context in which particular learning episodes are played out.
Communal features of learning can reinforce learning impediments, or help