One approach to the teaching of social concepts was investigated. Personal knowledge construction, which emphasises the importance of the learner's prior knowledge and proposes as paramount in learning the interaction between 'old' knowledge and new information, is assumed. From within this perspective Jenkin's (1979) Theorists' Tethrahedron was used to explore the essential factors in the learning process, namely: the nature of the knowledge; the critical task; learner characteristics; learning activities; and their interactions. For the nature of the knowledge a view of the concept of conflict is offered and an expert concept map constructed. Individual student concept map construction is argued as the most effective method of accessing students' internal representations of conflict to reveal any effects of learning. The learners' characteristics are examined from the viewpoint of schema theory and include important affective elements. Instructional strategies identified in non- social cognitive studies as promoting learning activities which encourage connections between new and old knowledge are explored. The basic similarities in knowledge construction assumed to occur in non-social and social cognition led to the testing of two hypotheses which sought to show that effect of prior knowledge and the use of the above strategies on knowledge construction were also manifested in the social domain.