This study aimed to facilitate grade 8 students' conceptual understanding of 'sustainable development (SD)' via Common Knowledge Construction Model (CKCM)-oriented instruction. Through a pre-experimental research approach, the study was conducted with 31 grade 8 students drawn from a secondary school in the city of Trabzon, Turkey. A word association test (WAT), a conceptual understanding test (CUT) and student worksheets were used to unveil their conceptual understanding of SD (i.e. sustainability, recycling, saving, technology, environment, and the technology-environment-sustainability cycle). In analysing data, grade 8 students' responses to the WAT and CUT were imported into SPSS 22.0TM to run a paired samples t-test. Further, their responses to each worksheet were exposed to content analysis via three criteria: "Positive Relational Development," "Negative Relational Development" and "No Change." The current study revealed that the CKCM-oriented instruction was effective in enhancing grade 8 students' conceptual understanding of SD and challenging their alternative conceptions. In light of the results, the current study recommends that teachers and science educators develop similar teaching designs for other science topics.