In this paper, it is suggested that while there are a variety of frames or perspectives that guide research into learning science, a pre-paradigmatic field need not be a "free-for-all". Lakatos suggested that academic research fields were characterised by research programmes (RP), which offered heuristic guidance to researchers, and which sometimes, "but by no means always", led to a dominant RP having the status of a Kuhnian paradigm. It is argued in this review that Lakatos' approach is a useful way for identifying continuity in research traditions within a field such as science education. This review takes up a long-standing proposal (Gilbert & Swift, 1985) that research into learning in science that has been labelled as "constructivism in science education" or the "alternative conceptions movement", could be understood as a Lakatosian RP. The key purpose of the present review is to evaluate what has been achieved within the RP, and to highlight fruitful avenues for further research. (Contains 2 tables.)