Exploring the link between students' scientific and nonscientific conceptions

In recent years, a large amount of research has focused on alternative conceptions, but some studies have shown that students may also have scientifically acceptable understandings in the same content area. The purpose of the present study was to investigate whether these two types of understandings are linked, and if so, how. Individual interviews were carried out with 63 11-12-year-old students and 44 15-16-year-old students. The interviews were designed to identify students' conceptions of biological role (i.e., every living thing has a role to play in nature) as applied to a range of different types of living things. A significant proportion of students had both an alternative conception and a scientifically acceptable conception. Their explanations indicated that they were using an "if... then" type of reasoning which linked the two conceptions. (C) 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.