An Analysis of Border Crossing between Learners' Life Worlds and School Science

ABSTRACT

Emerging evidence confirm that learners coming from a traditional background have an anthropomorphic view of nature, as opposed to the mechanistic view of nature indicative of western societies. If the view that the learner's societal and cultural environment exert considerable influence on what s/he learns at school is valid, then, it can be assumed that the prevalent world view and particularly her/his previous knowledge should be crucial to what is learned at school. When a learner's pervious knowledge contradicts what s/he learns at school, then cognitive conflicts is bound to result. To resolve such a conflict would demand the necessity of a mechanism for resolving such a clashing of distinct world views. Collateral theory and Contiguity hypothesis have been proposed to explain how a learner harmonizes the conflict resulting from a traditional world view and that of science.