Good suggestions to observing misconceptions

In this article, Page Keeley briefly introduced a lesson known as "The Mitten Problem" that she's seen taught before. Many children have misconceptions about "warm" clothes, not necessarily ... See More

In this article, Page Keeley briefly introduced a lesson known as "The Mitten Problem" that she's seen taught before. Many children have misconceptions about "warm" clothes, not necessarily understanding that they don't make you warmer, but that they keep heat in. The teacher who taught this lesson did fantastic, as she did not tell students whether their ideas were right or wrong, but rather asked the students where they could find more evidence, leading them in what this article referred to as "inquiry teaching for conceptual change." Keeley continued to give more ideas for addressing misconceptions with probes. She looked at the P-E-O model, "Predict-Explain-Observe" where the student come up with a prediction, they explain why, and then test it through experiments and exploration. This puts learning in the hands of the students and by allowing them to learn through experience and hands-on activity, rather than just being told whether they are right or wrong by the teacher.

Magical Material

The probe in this article is what Page Keeley calls a P.O.E. probe (Predict, Observe, and Explain). Some students believe that some materials create heat and thus warm us when we wear artic... See More

The probe in this article is what Page Keeley calls a P.O.E. probe (Predict, Observe, and Explain). Some students believe that some materials create heat and thus warm us when we wear articles of clothing made from these materials. The article refers to this misconception as the “theory of immaculate insulation”. Allowing students to prove or disprove this misconception would be an excellent way to initiate conceptual change. Reading how a teacher accomplishs this change will provide an excellent example of student lead investigations.