nhelder & Piaget, 1958, p. 104). Piaget was primarily concerned with the developmental factors that characterize the changes in the child's explanations of the world around him or her. Piaget's early research showed three parallel lines of development. First, from an initial adualism or confusion of result of the subject's own activity with objective changes to reality to a differentiation between subject and object. Second, from a phenomenological interpretation of the world to one which is based on objective causality. Third, from a unconscious focusing on one's own point of view to a decentration which allocates the subject a place in the world alongside other persons and objects. In functional terms, these concepts are termed assimilation and accommodation in reference to interaction with the physical world, and socialization in reference to interaction with other people (Inhelder & Sinclair, 1974, p.22). Piaget's states many secondary level science courses taught in the past at the have been too abstract for most students since they are taught in lecture or reception learning format. Thus, students who only have concrete operational structures available for their reasoning will not be successful with these types of curricula. Programs using concrete and self-pacing instruction are better suited to the majority of students and the only stumbling block may be teachers who cannot understand the programs or regard them as too simplistic. Since the teacher is a very important variable regarding the outcome of the science, the concern level of the teacher will determine to what extent science instruction is translated in a cognitively relevant m...
