Science Education in Nonwestern Cultures121Rather, it is an integral part of what is learned. Situations might be said to co-produce knowledge through activity. Learning and cognition, it is now possible to argue, are fundamentally situated, (p. 32)Brown, Collins & Duguid (1989) and Glynn, Yeany & Britton (1991) have argued that it is very limiting to assume that conceptual knowledge can be abstracted from the situations in which it is learned and used. Drawing on recent research into cognition, they have concluded that knowledge is situated as a product of the activity, context, and culture in which it is developed and used, noting that conventional schooling too often ignores the influence of culture on what is learned in school. Atwater (1994) supports the view that student prior knowledge, expectations, and preconceptions serve as filters for information. She further explains that n science classes the ideal way for students to understand science concepts includes students challenging the new concept, grappling with it, attempting to make meaning of it, and eventually integrating it with what they already know�(p. 560). Hennessy (1993) has summarized the implications of situated cognition for our understanding of classroom learning and reiterates the role of prior knowledge in learning as follows:A key factor in problem-solving ability is the learner resourceshe informal or intuitive knowledge an individual is capable of bringing to bear on his or her relevant competencies. Schema theory and related research indicate that as in the case of expert practitioners, children previous knowledge and experience are a major determining factor in how new tasks are interpreted, what is understood and what they can go on to learn. The organized, abstracted bodies of information which learners bring to learning determine whether new materials will make sense, (p. 7)According to Baker and Taylor (1995) prior knowledge seemed to be ighly resilient in the face of traditional modes of instruction�(p. 9). This supports the finding of Gilbert, Watts and Osborne (1982) in their studies of children science which states that the dominance of students�prior understandings can often lead to quite unintended interpretations of what is being taught. Schutz and Luckmann (1973) propounded the foundational theory as accounting for this state with some corroboration from other studies (Acura, 1983; Ehindero, 1982) which affirmed ecoculture as the underlying factor for prior knowledge. The results of these research studies, alongside those of Ausubel (1968) and Novak
