ASE Chat Summary
Topic 13 - What misconceptions do students have in science?
Subject Areas
Physics Forces ideas about upthrust and
centrifugal force, energy (being created and destroyed
rather than just being transferred from one form to
another), electricity (confusion between voltage and
current), light (your eyes send out beams of light,
which bounce back off objects), mass vs weight, speed
vs velocity and the idea that hot air rises (with no
appreciation of the role of the cold air).
These questions by Robin Millar are designed to help
teachers diagnose misconceptions in physics:
http://www.york.ac.uk/education/research/cirse/olde
r/epse/resources/
Biology - respiration vs breathing, a lack of
appreciation for the long time scales involved (millions
of years) in evolution and also the rock cycle, plant
nutrition, inheritance, decay, recycling, classification.
Chemistry - Particle theory (lack of appreciation of
scale and the idea that in a gas there is air between
the particles). Confusion between an atoms nucleus
and a cells nucleus.
For an exhaustive list of chemistry misconceptions
see:
http://www.rsc.org/images/Misconceptions_update_
tcm18-188603.pdf and
http://www.rsc.org/Education/Teachers/Resources/B
ooks/Misconceptions.asp
The whole idea that science itself is certain and
uncontested is a misconception portrayed by
textbooks. Real scientists engaged in frontier science
deal with a complex world where results and theories
are tentative and often disputed. It is not easy for
teachers to convey this idea, especially with textbook
writers and examiners conspiring against them. Pupils
also have misconceptions about How Science Works
(e.g. getting accuracy and precision mixed up).
Diagnosis and Treatment
It is essential to get pupils to talk about science in
order to diagnose misconceptions. Problems of self-
confidence arise here. Only the most confident pupils
Monday 22nd August 2011
will articulate half-formed ideas in front of their peers.
Misconceptions can be tackled by teacher-talk, or
(more effectively) by getting peers to explain how the
misconception is incorrect. CASE talks about the area
of cognitive conflict.
Language
When scientists talk about science they share a
commonly understood language (although @DrDav
pointed out that if they come from different
specialisms, their use of certain terms might not
correspond exactly). When teachers talk to pupils,
they cant always rely on this shared language. Pupils
will use the everyday meaning of technical words
such as energy, power and work.
Concept Cartoons
Naylor and Keooghs Concept Cartoons can be used to
explore ideas around misconceptions:
http://www.conceptcartoons.co.uk/ Concept
Cartoons can be used as a tool for identifying class
thinking about a specific situation and are an
especially powerful tool when pupils create and
comment on cartoons of their own:
http://www.conceptcartoons.com/science/pupils-
cc.htm
Im A Scientist Get Me Out of Here!
http://imascientist.org.uk/ has taken place across the
UK in June 2010 and June 2011. It aim is to get
scientists and pupils talking to each other online. This
provides a low-stakes environment for under-
confident pupils to discuss their scientific ideas.
Online chat is a comfortable vernacular for the
Facebook generation.
Top Ten Tweets
I fear students see science is seen as a body of
factual knowledge rather than an ongoing process of
discovery. Am I right? @tom_hartley
What I mean by misconceptions are beliefs that
persist into adulthood, the best I hope 4 is that they
learn the correct ans4exams @agittner
Is there a difference between an alternative
conception in a child's head and the use of the wrong
word to describe a science idea? @NeedhamL56
@agittner I have been told by a scientist that salt
melting ice is too complex an idea for school
students. @ViciaScience
@AnthHard Isn't it really about the students
speaking to the teacher? That's how to spot
misconceptions... @JobinaTwig
@JobinaTwig I agree - but a good science teacher
knows what misconceptions exist and plans
appropriate activities. @ViciaScience
@JobinaTwig Identifying range and 'strength' of
misconceptions is start. Responding is next, but
reassessing just as important. @ViciaScience
Great chapter in Ambrose 'How Learning Works' on
influence of prior knowledge on learning Can help or
hinder but MUST be activated. @teachitso
One I constantly get is "breathing is the same as
respiration - didn't help when PE teacher told them
that again @ PE theory lesson @niamhirl
Books
Find out more about CASE (Cognitive Acceleration
through Science Education) and CLIS (Chilldrens
Learning In Science) by reading The Pupil As Scientist?
By Rosalind Driver (1983, 21.89 from Amazon UK)
and Making Sense of Secondary Science: Research into
Children's Ideas by Rosalind Driver, Ann Squires, Peter
Rushworth and Valerie Wood-Robinson (1994, 18.19
at Amazon UK).
Meaning Making in Secondary Science Classrooms by
Eduardo Mortimer and Philip Scott (OUP 2003, 21.52
from Amazon UK) illustrates the importance of talk in
helping children develop understanding.
How Learning Works: Seven Research-Based Principles
for Smart Teaching by Susan Ambrose (2010, 22.09
from Amazon UK).
Essential Primary Science by Alan Cross and Adrian
Bowden (OUP 2009, 17.49 from Amazon UK)
highlights several common primary science
misconceptions.

I know many teachers hated it, but I found the old

CASE lessons very good for dealing with some
misconceptions if you planned them @niamhirl

Links

The National Strategies website includes several

guides to barriers to learning for science topics:
http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20110202
093118/http://nationalstrategies.standards.dcsf.gov.u
k/search/secondary/results/nav:45929

@Veritasium makes a compelling case that if teachers

make learning too easy (especially via educational
video clips), it can result in superficial learning, or no
learning at all, because pupils (mistakenly) assume
that the teachers viewpoint agrees with their own
view of the natural world. Very thought-provoking.
http://www.veritasium.com/2011/03/khan-academy-
and-effectiveness-of.html

Interesting LA Times article on The Myth of the

Extraordinary Teacher:
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/
la-oe-herman-class-size-20110731,0,3910343.story