Misconception or alternative conception is an opinion formed from lack of understanding of a concept properly. The line between the right and alternate conception is very sophisticated. The source of misconceptions can be cultural, social or lack of understanding in the classroom. The concerning fact about misconceptions is that we tend to build students knowledge and skills on the basis of their prior learning. Any misdirection on the previous knowledge can deviate the students from reaching the bigger conceptual goal.
The whole learning journey is to be carefully crafted to prevent the birth of any alternate conception. Moreover, a police action is required to check any development of wrong opinion.
At the time of teaching biology in stage 6, a teacher must be concern about the alternate conception brought by the students in the class as well as ones taken from the class. Here comes the necessity of diagnostic tests to identify whether the students understand the right concept.
Different strategies can be implemented to identify misconceptions in the classroom. At the beginning of any module, teacher discovers the preconceptions in relation to the prior learning. For example at the beginning of the module 8.4 Life on Earth, students can be tested on their conceptions about evolution theory, fossil formation and its importance in estimating age of the earth. We can run a topic test in the form of e quiz, where everybody remains anonymous. With given freedom, students respond spontaneously. Teacher will be able to find out some of the naïve ideas. The crucial thing here is to devise the right questions. After identifying the misconceptions, the strategies to replace them with the correct ones have to be implied. We can use inquiry based learning like a web quest, making a poster/ pamphlets based on guided research to create a better conceptual understanding of the previous concept. Later on as the module progresses, aside from just chalk and talk methods, paedagogies like problem based learning, discovery methods should be used. This will create the necessary time and space for the students to confront their own concepts. At the same time small on going assessments on the topic taught can also help to figure out the weaknesses.
Identifying misconceptions and changing them is a time consuming task requiring patience and research on teacher’s part. But we must remember that we are teaching not just for exam purpose, there is also a bigger purpose- to prepare them for their future.
Bibliography:
NSW Board of Studies. (2002). Stage 6 Syllabus Biology. Sydney, Australia: NSW Board of Studies.
Koba, S. & Tweed, A. (2009). Hard to teach Biology concepts: A framework to deepen student
understanding. New York: NSTA
Vosnaidau, S. (2008). International handbook of research on conceptual change. New York: Routledge
yes, as you said misconceptions will no doubtedly be common in the classroom, any classroom for that matter, not just at the school level. i recall the exercise we did in sc&t1 last semester in relation to reflections in a mirror. if you recall we filled in an exercise sheet to demonstrate our ideas about this. i think when we actually looked in the mirror on the lab wall, most of us found we had some misconceptions regarding this. through a simple first hand investigation, our misconceptions were proven to be mismatched with what we actually observed. this form of uncovering student misconceptions via a first hand investigation (where possible) lends itself well to students then needing to learn why their ideas or notions did not fit what they observed and what scientific evidence shows to be true.
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