The important role of conceptual thinking in learning for deep comprehension is now widely recognized. Still, traditional pedagogy and learning assessments focus on rote learning, memory of facts, and correct execution of problem-solving procedures presented through structured items such as true/false and multiple-choice questions. In contrast, teaching and learning in the digital age is facilitated by pedagogy for conceptual thinking and peer cooperation that enhance ways of thinking that explore patterns of equivalence-of-meaning among ideas, relations, and underlying issues; focus learners' attention on meaning, and enhances their understanding of representations that may be encoded in different sign systems, but share equivalence-of-meaning. Evolution of pedagogy for conceptual thinking and peer cooperation follow insights from several recent developments, including: The emerging digital cyber-infrastructure of networked information; analysis of patterns of content and structure of labelled patterns in human experience that led to the emergence of concept science; research in neuroscience and brain imaging that provide experimental support to the semiotic construct 'representational competence', demonstrating that exposure of learners to multi-semiotic inductive questions enhance cognitive control of inter-hemispheric attentional processing in the lateral brain, and increase higher-order thinking; the key role of 'knowledge of being observed' in peer cooperation driven by reputation for enhancing the common good.

In this book we discuss the issues and considerations emerging from our review of recent literature in the area of problem solving for conceptual change. We then use the literature review to frame our argument that there is an interdependent relationship between conceptual change and problem solving. We propose that conceptual change and problem solving are two dynamic processes, which constantly interact with each other and generate synergy in a cyclical knowledge acquisition process. In other words, solving an ill-structured, contextually rich problem, requires students to formulate and test hypotheses, self-question, check and revisit their initial conceptual understandings. During this cyclical process, students are likely to encounter information that challenges them to reorganize - or restructure - their conceptual framework. This evoke meta-conceptual awareness can also require aspects of the problem situation to be re-thought and restructured to achieve feasible solutions. In this interdependent relationship, problem solving and conceptual change are both processes and outcomes.