Sánchez Gómez, Pedro Juan2025-11-032025-11-032021-06-01Sánchez Gómez, P. J. (2021). On the Epistemic Value of Students’ Conceptions in Science Education. Science and Education, 30(4), 827-847. https://doi.org/10.1007/S11191-021-00211-41573-19010926-722010.1007/S11191-021-00211-4https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/125639This work has been supported by the Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades, through the research project PGC2018-099423-B-I00. The author is a member of the research group Methods of Scientific Representation (MSR), based at the Complutense University of Madrid.In this article, I present an analysis of the epistemic value of the students' conceptions, as employed in the current constructivist research. I focus on the conceptions about natural kinds. Since natural kind terms are a crucial part of the discourse of the natural sciences, my conclusions are particularly relevant in science education. To perform my analysis, I use a thought experiment, adapted from Hilary Putnam’s famous Twin-Earth examples. I conclude that, to avoid some strong ontoepistemic implications, an externalist view of the learner’s thought must be adopted. In my approach, students’ conceptions are re-interpreted in terms of Hilary Putnam’s stereotypes, conventional representations of a natural kind that guarantee a semantic competence in a specific linguistic environment. As a conclusion, I argue that the role of students’ conceptions is not epistemic but pragmatic. They should not be understood as a partial or provisional representation of how a natural kind really is but as linguistic tools that permit the learner to engage in classroom discourse. Finally, I present a preliminary application of my ideas to the study of the usage of tautologies in science education.engAttribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 Internationalhttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/journal articlehttps://doi.org/10.1007/S11191-021-00211-4https://produccioncientifica.ucm.es/documentos/60e6a0f94edb8e25f92cd37fhttps://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/85104764365https://www.webofscience.com/wos/woscc/full-record/WOS:000640432300001https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11191-021-00211-4open access37.02372.8537.015.33137.013371.3Science educationHilary PutnamSemantic externalismStudents' conceptionsEducational constructivismEducación científicaExternismo semánticoConceptos de los estudiantesConstructivismo educativoDidácticaEnseñanza de las Ciencias SocialesEnseñanza de las Ciencias experimentalesPedagogíaMétodos de enseñanza58 Pedagogía7205.05 Filosofía de las Ciencias Sociales5801 Teoría y Métodos Educativos