Epistemological resources for thought experimentation in science learning

Thought Experiments (TEs) are reasoning processes that are based on 'result s' of an experiment carried out in thought. What is the validity of an expe riment - that has not been actually executed - for knowledge about the phys ical world! What are the features that make it distinctive and how do we in tegrate it into learning environments to support such thought processes! Th is study suggests that a thought experiment draws on three epistemological resources: conceptual-logical inferences, visual imagery and bodily-motor e xperience. We start by stating how students' TEs are related to recent rese arch on learning science and then proceed to describe the nature of TEs. Th e central part of the paper deals with cognitive theories and empirical exa mples of visual imagery and bodily imagery. It also deals with how these en able implicit knowledge about the world to be retrieved. Students may have, but are not aware of, such knowledge for it is hidden when learning is onl y based on format representations. We show that imagination is structured, goal-oriented, based on prior experiential imagery and internally coherent. Students can, for example, mentally rotate objects at constant velocity. S tudents can 'zoom in and out' to inspect imaginary situations, transfer obj ects, predict paths of imaginary moving objects and imagine the impact of f orces on mechanical systems. We show thar the TEs are powerful because of t hese capabilities. We further claim that these are not exploited by school learning environments and offer a first step towards understanding imagery in science learning.