Misconceptions Die Hard

The main point of this article is that students will dress up an incorrect idea instead of abandoing it. "Dressing up" an idea means that it is the same notion expressed with different, more complex terminology as the student gets older. Even though their explanations sound more sophisticated, students still don't truly understand the concept.

 I was really surprised to see just how true this was when I read about the study of students at the primary, intermediate, junior high, and college level. College students, especially those majoring in elementary education who will be educating young people, should have had much more understanding than students in the younger grades. However, their understanding was only slightly better; the real difference was in the complexity of their vocabularies. But the use of more complex terms didn't mean they actually understood what they were talking about.

This article made me see that misconceptions at all ages are far more common than is acceptable.That information is important to me as a future teacher for many different reasons. First of all, I need to make sure I don't have any misconceptions. I need to completely understand my teaching topics. Therefore, before each lesson, I should research the topic further if I have any doubts. Otherwise, I'll be passing on those misconceptions to my students.

Another reason this information is important is because I will need to work to prevent misconceptions in my students. The article mentions that one of the reasons misconceptions die hard in science is because science is not taught enough at the elementary level. I think that science education has been greatly increased since this article was written, but many would argue that we still need more, especially in the K-2 grades. It makes sense that without enough early education in scientific ideas, students would use their intuition more heavily and form misconceptions which are hard to break later on.

The article also mentioned several good strategies for catching and correcting misconceptions. Communication is key because through asking probing questions, the teacher can observe students' true levels of understanding. Another way that this could be accomplished is through science journals. Reading students' entries give teachers a direct window into their students' thinking. Using labwork is another important way to catch misconceptions because students have to have a more meaningful understandning to use the concepts in a real experiment. I will use all these methods to be on the lookout for misconceptions in my classroom.