Science Education as Conceptual Change
Susan Carey was a prominent figure at the very start of cognitive science. Her work centers on how humans develop concepts from infancy through adulthood, emphasizing core knowledge systems, conceptual discontinuities, and learning mechanisms. She is a superb antidote to the idea that learning is a change in long term memory rather a change in how beliefs and ideas are organised. She shows how children build increasingly complex conceptual systems—such as number, agency, and causality—and how language and culture shape conceptual change.
This paper is perhaps more relevant than ever