In order to move students’ thinking from the exploration experiences to concept understanding (and thus the ability to then apply that understanding), teachers must deliberately consider students’ misconceptions, the intermediate steps to the accurate conception, and how to scaffold students’ understanding step-by-step to the desired understanding. A particular challenge is that students often use the exploration experiences to support their misconceptions. This does not mean that experience is unimportant—but it does mean that our role in the concept development phase is crucial. This month’s column discusses how to effectively move students from experience to understanding.
Details
Type Journal ArticlePub Date 2/1/2009Stock # sc09_046_06_51Volume 046Issue 06