Abstract

Children’s ideas about the Earth in space have been of interest to science educators and cognitive psychologists for some time. By focusing almost exclusively on shape and gravity alone, however, other important Earth attributes have been largely neglected or overlooked. Findings from a quasi-experimental study of knowledge acquisition and concept learning in astronomy among 9- to 11-
year-olds attending a single primary school in England are presented which not only begin to address the situation but challenge some of the common assertions in this field. The processes of weak and radical knowledge restructuring and conceptual extension as well as conceptual change are exemplified.