  Most educational literature on conceptual change concerns the process by
which introductory students acquire scientific knowledge. However, with modern
developments in science and technology, the social significance of learning
successive theories is steadily increasing, thus opening new areas of interest
to discipline-based education research, e.g., quantum logic, quantum
information and communication. Here we present an initial proposal for modeling
the transition from the understanding of a theory to the understanding of its
successor and explore its generative potential by applying it to a concrete
case: the classical-quantum transition in physics. In pursue of such task, we
make coordinated use of contributions not only from research on conceptual
change in education, but also on the history and philosophy of science, on the
teaching and learning of quantum mechanics, on mathematics education. By means
of analytical instruments developed for characterizing conceptual trajectories
at different representational levels, we review empirical literature in the
search for the connections between theory change and cognitive demands. The
analysis shows a rich landscape of changes and new challenges that are absent
in the traditionally considered cases of conceptual change. In order to fully
disclose the educational potential of the analysis, we visualize categorical
changes by means of dynamic frames, identifying recognizable patterns that
answer to students' need of comparability between the older and the new
paradigm. Finally, we show how the frame representation can be used to suggest
pattern-dependent strategies to promote the understanding of the new content,
and may work as a guide to curricular design.
