Suggests that Kuhn's and Lakatos' schemes for the philosophy of science have been pervasive metaphors for conceptual change approaches to the learning and teaching of science, and have been used both implicitly and explicitly to provide an organizing framework and justification matrix for those perspectives. Describes four alternative perspectives including Kelly's 'psychology of personal constructs', Van Manen's 'pedagogical thoughtfulness', Whitehead's 'living educational theory', and Polkinghorne's 'postmodern epistemology of practice'. (Author/MM)