Addressing Your Students’ Misconceptions
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Transcript Addressing Your Students’ Misconceptions
Breaking Through the
Barriers to Student Learning
Jake Burgoon
NWO Symposium 2009
A lesson on heat began with the question, “What is
heat?”
The students said that heat came from the sun and
from our bodies
One student spoke up about the heat in sweaters, and
everyone agreed that sweaters were hot … and hats
and rugs, too!
The teacher decided to let the students find out
www.exploratorium.edu/IFI/resources/workshops/teachingforconcept.html
The students placed thermometers inside sweaters,
hats, and a rolled-up rug
After 15 minutes, the temperature didn’t increase, so
one student suggested to leave it overnight
The students predicted three-digit temperatures the next
day
But the students came in the next morning and found
the temperature to be the same
“Cold air got in somehow”
“We didn’t leave them in there long enough”
www.exploratorium.edu/IFI/resources/workshops/teachingforconcept.html
One student decided to seal the hat, with a
thermometer, inside a plastic bag
Other students put their sweaters in closets or desks
Again, the next day, the students found that the
temperature had not changed
One student wanted to put the hat and thermometer in
a metal box and leave it for a year
Surely the temperature would change then!
www.exploratorium.edu/IFI/resources/workshops/teachingforconcept.html
After some discussion, the teacher offered the students two
theories:
Heat could come from almost anything, even hats and
sweaters. In measuring this heat, we are sometimes
fooled because we’re really measuring the cold air that
gets inside
Heat comes mostly from the sun and our bodies and is
trapped inside winter clothes that keep our body heat in
and keep the cold air out
Most students chose the second theory, and decided to test
it by putting thermometers in their hats during recess
www.exploratorium.edu/IFI/resources/workshops/teachingforconcept.html
Students come into the classroom with their own
conceptions about the natural world
These conceptions are:
Explanatory
Re-confirmed by everyday experiences
Students are often resistant to give up these ideas
Changing students’ initial conceptions can be a long
process
o Astronomical object
o Spherical
o Unsupported
o Gravity towards the
center of the earth
o Physical object
o Flat
o Supported
o Up/down gravity
How can the earth be spherical and flat at the same time?
How can people live on this spherical earth without falling down?
Everyday Experiences
Classroom instruction
Students draw conclusions that were not
intended
Lesson design
Prior experience
Incorrect explanations
Textbooks
TEACHERS
STUDENTS
1. Mastering science
content
2. Being aware of your
students’
misconceptions
3. Addressing
misconceptions with
instruction
Lack of content knowledge =
inadvertently providing students with
scientifically incorrect information
Teachers (and other adults) often have the
same misconceptions as students
Compare the masses of the three containers
Greatest
mass
42%
FROZEN
Least
mass
37%
HEATED
ROOM
TEMPERATURE
50%
33%
In order to correct student
misconceptions, you must FIRST know
what they are
Dive into the research
AAAS Benchmarks, Making Sense of Secondary
Science
Formative assessments
Your students may have unique ideas
The most important factor influencing learning
is what the learner already knows. Ascertain
this and teach him accordingly.
David Ausubel
Assess before, during, and after lessons
Formative assessments should elicit students’
explanations and personal theories about
concepts
More than true/false or yes/no
Ensures that you are giving your students
EXACTLY what they need
Align your instruction to their misconceptions
Lessons are slightly modified each year
Formative
assessment
Become aware of student
misconceptions
Use misconceptions to
guide instruction
Help students overcome
misconceptions
Increase student learning
Hands-on
Sorting activities
Writing things down
Written probes
Watching cartoons or viewing
comics
Science Concept Comics
Animated Cartoons
I think it will keep
him cold, and stop
him from melting.
Don’t put the coat
on the snowman –
it will melt him!
I don’t think the
coat will make any
difference.
1) Dissatisfaction with existing conceptions
o Cognitive conflict
o Difficult to achieve!
2) New conception must be intelligible
1) New conception must appear plausible
1) New conception must seem fruitful
Discrepant events
Demonstrations
Experimental activities
The power of PREDICTION
Critiques:
Students do not see the conflict
Students become discouraged
1) Dissatisfaction with existing conceptions
o Cognitive conflict
o Difficult to achieve!
2) New conception must be intelligible
o Understanding terms and symbols
o Internal representation of concept
3) New conception must appear plausible
o Not counter-intuitive
o Consistent with personal theory or past experiences
4) New conception must seem fruitful
Initial Conception: A table cannot push up on a book
Spring pushes
on hand
Foam pushes
on book
Flexible
board pushes
on book
Table pushes
on book
1) Dissatisfaction with existing conceptions
o Cognitive conflict
o Difficult to achieve!
2) New conception must be intelligible
o Understanding terms and symbols
o Internal representation of concept
3) New conception must appear plausible
o Not counter-intuitive
o Consistent with personal theory or past experiences
4) New conception must seem fruitful
o Resolves dissatisfaction
o Potential of concept to lead to new insights and discoveries
Metaconceptual awareness
Adults are more likely to change their conceptions
Intentional learning
Epistemological beliefs (what is knowledge?)
Simple and certain
Complex and continuously evolving
Makes a difference in students’ responses to conflicting
evidence
Making Sense of Secondary Science: Research Into
Children’s Ideas by Rosiland Driver
Student misconceptions about numerous topics
Benchmarks for Science Literacy by AAAS Project
2061
Chapter 15 is called “Research Base”
On-line at
www.project2061.org/publications/bsl/online/ind
ex.php
A Private Universe
http://www.learner.org/resources/series28.html
Stop Faking It! Finally Understanding Science So You
Can Teach It by William Robertson
Chemistry; Air, Water and Weather; Electricity and
Magnetism; Energy; Force and Motion; Light; Sound
Science For All Americans by AAAS
Science Matters: Achieving Scientific Literacy by
Robert Hazen and James Trefil
Uncovering Student Ideas in Science (Volumes 1 to 4)
by Page Keeley
100 total formative assessment probes
Science Formative Assessment: 75 Strategies for
Linking Assessment, Instruction, and Learning by
Page Keeley