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Educational theories and approaches are grounded in learning theories, which imply assumptions about the concepts humans acquire and develop in the mind. Despite the foundational influence of such assumptions, research on their influence in educational theories and approaches is rare, and these assumptions are often implicit. Moreover, research on theories of concepts has revealed competing assumptions, making them far from self-evident. Prior work in educational research has discussed how certain assumptions about concepts inform educational approaches. However, research on theories of concepts and corresponding debates has shown that assumptions about concepts pertain to several key dimensions: (a) the nature of concepts, (b) their origin and acquisition, (c) potential variations in their contents throughout cognitive development, and (d) the nature of their internal structure.
This presentation examines how these assumptions about concepts, and competing viewpoints about them, have informed major trends within educational approaches, including key oppositions and debates. The approaches and debates covered include the instructivist–constructivist debate, divisions in conceptual change research, and the distribution of educational content and favored instructional methods in conventional curricula. Moreover, I show that major criticisms of these approaches in educational debates parallel analogous criticisms and debates in concept theory research directed at the underlying assumptions about concepts on which these approaches are based.
In conclusion, examining how assumptions about concepts inform educational approaches reveals, at a fine-grained level, the most foundational assumptions regarding knowledge, learning, and teaching. Moreover, examining the analogous criticisms in educational research and in concept theory research helps critically address foundational epistemological assumptions underlying educational approaches.
Meet the speaker
Dr Thomas Gennen holds two master’s degrees in the philosophy and anthropology of education and a Ph.D. in educational sciences from the Université Libre de Bruxelles.
His research develops a multi-level analysis that traces how epistemological assumptions shape educational theories and approaches and impact student learning. This framework has been applied to central debates in educational sciences: the instructivist–constructivist debate, competing theories of conceptual change, the influence of assumptions about concepts on educational theories, the problematic legacy of empiricism in contemporary education, and debates over the relationship between teachers’ epistemological beliefs and practices. His research on conceptual change has sparked a debate in Human Development with Andrea diSessa.
He is the recipient of several awards, including the 2025 American Educational Research Association Cultural-Historical SIG Graduate Student Award and the 2025 Jean Piaget Society Dissertation Prize. He will begin a research project at the University of California, Berkeley, evaluating a physics education approach informed by knowledge-in-pieces theory, supervised by Marcia Linn.