Concept Formation in Biology: The Concept ‘Growth’

Abstract

English A concept is understood here as a logic core, which is surrounded by an associative framework, to which also the name of the concept belongs. The logic core is a pattern of properties of a class of things, which is invariant to individual objects of the class as well as to the observer. The pattern is determined by logic relations, which are constituents of the epistemic structure of the learner. In this article an analysis of the situation concerning the concept ‘growth’ is carried out. The logic core of the concept is theoretically investigated by means of systems theory and is empirically tested by means of free definitions. The associative framework, however, is determined by means of free association tests. It is shown that in the course of school education a marked shift takes place in the logic core as well as in the associative framework from a ‘growth in terms of geometric dimension’ towards a ‘growth in terms of particle numbers’.