Are misconceptions a bad thing? Ummm…no…? After all, isn’t that what happens when we advance our knowledge in science? The old understandings now become misconceptions that we have to deal with. While reading TSS 4, it struck me that I was basically reading about the misconceptions that psychologists and educational researchers have had about student learning and their misconceptions.
I don’t think that there is any way that we can avoid misconceptions. Whenever we teach new material to students, they are automatically going to try to apply the new information to other instances. They will use the new information as explanations for other phenomena that they assume are linked to one another. In science we are pushing students to be able to apply new knowledge to other situations; to be free thinkers and problem solvers. In doing so, students are going to formulate more misconceptions (unless we can get them to just stop thinking); some of which may not be realized until further down the road when they return to the same subject matter at a deeper level. We can’t avoid misconceptions from forming; however, we need to find a way to deal with the misconceptions when they arise.
I don’t think that there is any way that we can avoid misconceptions. Whenever we teach new material to students, they are automatically going to try to apply the new information to other instances. They will use the new information as explanations for other phenomena that they assume are linked to one another. In science we are pushing students to be able to apply new knowledge to other situations; to be free thinkers and problem solvers. In doing so, students are going to formulate more misconceptions (unless we can get them to just stop thinking); some of which may not be realized until further down the road when they return to the same subject matter at a deeper level. We can’t avoid misconceptions from forming; however, we need to find a way to deal with the misconceptions when they arise.