What are the sources of misconceptions?
The idea of the human mind as originally an empty vessel or a blank slate has a long history dating back at least to Aristotle. Over the years, this notion has been argued and debated by many learning theorists, for instance Dewey believed that two essential components in education are the experience of the learner and critical inquiry (Dewey, J., & Bentley, A. F. 1960). In the video Private Universe, Heather’s errors and misconceptions occured because she has the wrong or inappropriate generalization of Space Science. Driver et al.,1985 argues “experienced teachers [need to] realize that students do have their own ideas about phenomena, even if at times these ‘ideas’ may seem incoherent at from the teacher’s point of view” (p.2). There is no doubt that Heather’s misunderstanding or interpretation came from another source which made an impact on her learning.
According to Cordova, J. R. et al.,2014 there are several affective and motivational variables that may lead to misconceptions.
Confidence prior knowledge- “refers to a retrospective judgment of whether one’s current understanding of the topic is correct” (Cordova, J. R. et al., 2014, p. 165)
self-efficacy-”prospective judgment of one’s capabilities to learn about a specific topic” (Cordova, J. R. et al., 2014, p. 165)
interest– Situational interest is a short-term form of interest generally facilitated by something in a person’s environment. Individual interest- internal, and long-term form of interest that is less dependent on an environmental cue being present (Hidi, 1990).
role of learner characteristics– With respect to gender differences do account for the difference in learner conceptual understanding.
Knowing that students enter the classroom with the conceptual understanding of a topic, as educators, it is important that we tap into those understandings to reveal an inconsistency. Vosniadou, S., & Brewer, W. F. (1992) researchers did an excellent job of investigating students knowledge about the shape of the earth. Unlike Heather’s teacher, these researchers considered asking questions about the topic before explicitly teaching the lesson. The following are teaching techniques to retrieve pre-conceptual understanding.
Concept Inventories
Concept inventories are multiple choice or short answer tests that target fundamental concepts within a domain.
Concept maps
Concept map activities can reveal the underlying structure or organization of students knowledge of a concept or constellation of concepts. These are very helpful when the kinds of causal theories and relations among ideas are critical to them understanding the course materials.
Self-Assessment Probes
Self-assessment probes are indirect methods of assessment that ask students to reflect and comment on their level of knowledge and skill across a range of items.
References:
Cordova, J. R., Sinatra, G. M., Jones, S. H., Taasoobshirazi, G., & Lombardi, D. (2014). Confidence in prior knowledge, self-efficacy, interest and prior knowledge: Influences on conceptual change. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 39(2), 164-174.
Dewey, J., & Bentley, A. F. (1960). Knowing and the known(No. 111). Boston: Beacon Press.
Driver, R., Guesne, E., & Tiberghien, A. (1985). Children’s ideas and the learning of science. Children’s ideas in science, 1-9.
Hidi, S. (1990). Interest and its contribution as a mental resource for learning. Review of Educational Research, 60(4), 549–571.
Vosniadou, S., & Brewer, W. F. (1992). Mental models of the earth: A study of conceptual change in childhood. Cognitive psychology, 24(4), 535-585.Available in the course readings library.