PLAYING THE NOTES BUT IGNORING THE TUNE - THE NARROWNESS OF BIOLOGY EDUCATION RESEARCH (REPRINTED FROM DIDASKALIA, VOL 1, PG 101, 1993)

'Alternatives conceptions' studies of children's thinking have now pro duced much data on a range of physical science concepts and a smaller range from biology. There is a danger that the application of these re sults to curriculum design will reinforce the view of school science a s a series of unconnected small topics, rather than encouraging the de velopment of a scientific view of the world where phenomena are seen a s having several aspects, and need the application of well developed s cientific theories adequately to understand the. The case for developi ng studies of overarching concepts that link several classes of phenom ena, using a theoretical perspective other than naive constructivism, is illustrated by a discussion of photosynthesis viewed as a complex s eries of inter-related topics.