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       All students in all disciplines have certain misconceptions that they bring with them to class. I read an article from The Science Teacher called “What we call misconceptions may be necessary stepping-stones toward making sense of the world”. It is interesting to me because student misconceptions are directly related to how we chose to teach and how students learn, so it is important to know how to deal with misconceptions so students don’t miss a prime opportunity to authentically learn.

       Misconceptions are the different student ideas that are not completely accurate and inconsistent with science (Campbell, Schwarz, & Windschitl, 2016). Student misconceptions are also difficult to change because it is what the students believe to be true based on their own personal experiences and connections with the topic. Traditional teaching was originally seen as something that needed to be corrected right away, but how does that affect a child’s thinking and learning processes? It can confuse the students even more by just throwing “correct” information their way that clashes with what they believed was true. Instead, the article is suggesting letting students learn through sense-making, which is essentially letting them explore what they believe is true, discover new science knowledge through ideas, texts, and other materials, and engage in discussion of ideas and use of evidence and reasoning to support their ideas in order to make essential, meaningful connections (Campbell et al., 2016)!

       The NGSS prioritizes sense-making learning by wanting students to engage in science and engineering practices as they are developing their disciplinary core ideas and crosscutting concepts to help them make sense of misconceptions and scientific phenomena through problem solving (Campbell et al., 2016). I also think that the 5E lesson plan model is a great way to ensure that you are setting up your students in a way that allows them to explore and discover new knowledge and information that can help them make sense of misconceptions and phenomena.

       As a preservice teacher, I do believe we need to embrace student misconceptions and be their guide and facilitator to help them explore and discover new material that will allow them to make sense of their misconceptions and form new knowledge. However, when engaging in sense-making learning there is a certain level of uncertainty that comes with the process. I find that my students get very uncomfortable with the level of uncertainty there can be and don’t trust themselves to fully answer questions or state their reasoning. One of my fears is that I might confuse them even more when I am actually trying to set them up to dig deeper and make sense of things through their own exploration.

I want to know your thoughts about student misconceptions. Do you embrace them or fear them? What can I do in order to be a better facilitator? Have you done things in your own classroom that worked with your students?

References

Campbell, T., Schwarz, C., & Windschitl, M. (March 1, 2016). What we call misconceptions may be necessary stepping-stones toward

     making sense of the world. The Science Teacher, 69-74.

Hi Michelle,

I am also a preservice teacher but have recently learned about student misconceptions in my science methods course.  I agree with you on how student misconceptions can't be fixed by just throwing the correct information their way.  We watched a video about a student's misconseption of the path Earth takes around the sun, her learning the correct way, and then explaining a few months later how she still thought her misconception was right even though she was taught the correct way.  Students need to put their misconeptions to a test and physically see and experience why their misconception is wrong and change the way they are thinking to what makes sense.  When students just learn the material for the test, they often go back to their misconceptions.  This is why it is so important for teachers to create experiences and engaging activities so students fully understand what is true and what isn't.  I was in a group project that used a misconception about shadows and created activities and experiences for students to do throughout the unit to help them correct their thinking.  We weren't able to teach these lessons to students, but still had the practice of going through what the students might be thinking and how to change it in a way that starts with themselves questioning their own thinking.  I want to embrace misconceptions in my science classroom in a way that takes the student on an investigation that leads to them questioning their own ideas and creating a new way to understand the phenomena.  

I hope you get some feedback from science teachers that have created lessons about student misconceptions!