International Research in Geographical and Environmental Education
Editors: A/Prof John Lidstone, Queensland University of Technology and Prof Joseph P. Stoltman, Western Michigan University
Book Review Editor: Dr Sarah Witham Bednarz, Texas A & M University
Editorial Assistant: Donna Bennett, Australia
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Volume: 7 Number: 1 Page: 14–25
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Lay Theories of Spring: Displacement of Common-Sense Understandings of Nature by 'Expert' Ideas
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Raymond Chipeniuk
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To explore the interplay between expert and common-sense ideas of nature in lay minds, a social representations approach was applied to a simple cognitive field, namely ideas about when spring begins, and
why. Results from content analysis confirmed that an explanation derived from science is displacing common-sense theories of spring in samples of high school students resident in the Niagara Peninsula,
Ontario, Canada. However, the 'expert' theory has no real explanatory value for those who hold it, whereas some of the common-sense theories do. These findings may have implications for environmental education
and planning when the object is not transmission of knowledge about science for its own sake but a person's competence in thinking about nature as an ordinary citizen.
© Channel View Publications
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