Accommodation: A Gradual Reshaping of Central Ideas
Accommodation is a major shift in thinking that happens when a person’s existing ideas no longer make sense of new information or experiences. Instead of simply adding new facts to what they already know, the learner must reorganize or replace their core concepts. This is a deeper, more far-reaching kind of conceptual change because it affects the central ideas a person uses to understand the world. However, even though accommodation involves a significant restructuring, it usually does not happen overnight.
For many learners, accommodation is a process that unfolds step by step. At first, they might accept parts of a new concept while holding onto older ways of thinking. Over time, as they see more evidence and think more deeply about the new ideas, they adjust the rest of their understanding. Each small adjustment paves the way for further changes. Eventually, the learner’s original framework is replaced by a new one that better explains what they observe and experience. Although the final result is a major reorganization, the journey is often full of trial and error, false starts, and changes of mind.
Accommodation according to GEORGE J. POSNER, KENNETH A. STRIKE, PETER W. HEWSON, and WILLIAM A. GERTZOG
- The replacement or reorganization of a student's central concepts. This more radical form of conceptual change we call accommodation. (Posner et al., 1982, p. 212)
- One's existing concpetions require some fundemental revisions (Posner et al., 1982, p. 221)
- That an accommodation is a radical change does not, however, entail that it is abrupt.
- there are good reasons to suppose that for students accommodation will be a gradual and piecemeal affair.
- “For them, accommodation may be a process of taking an initial step toward a new conception by accepting some of its claims and then gradually modifying other ideas, as they more fully realize the meaning and implication of these new commitments.” (Posner et al., 1982, p. 223)
- "Accommodation, particularly for the novice, is best thought of as a gradual adjustment in one's conception, each new adjustment laying the groundwork for further adjustments but where the end result is a substantial reorganization or change in one's central concepts."(Posner et al., 1982, p. 223)
**Providing for Accomodation**
Teaching science involves providing a rational basis for a conceptual change.
**Relationship with Anomalys**
“The search for instructionally viable and effective anomalies is of primary importance if accommodationis to be taken seriously as a goal.” (Posner et al., 1982, p. 221)
**Most common conditions for Accomodation**
1) “ There must be dissatisfaction with existing conceptions.” (Posner et al., 1982, p. 214)
2) “A new conception must be intelligible.” (Posner et al., 1982, p. 214)
3) “A new conception must appear initially plausible.” (Posner et al., 1982, p. 214)
4) “A new concept should suggest the possibility ofa fruitful research program” (Posner et al., 1982, p. 214)
**Misleads**
Our interviews also indicate that what may initially appear as an accommodation may turn out to be something less than that.
- “Accommodation may, thus, have to wait until some unfruitful attempts at assimilation are worked through.” (Posner et al., 1982, p. 223)
“It rarely seems characterized by either a flash of insight, in which old ideas fall away to be replaced by new visions, or as a steady logical progression from one commitment to another. Rather, it involves much fumbling about, many false starts and mistakes, and frequent reversals of direction.” (Posner et al., 1982, p. 223)