Pupils are not blank slates. They already come to school with pre-existing ideas about the world around them which are often incorrect. These are known as misconceptions.
What is a misconception?
Pupils do not come into school as an empty vessel, ready to be filled with science knowledge, rather they come with their own sets of ideas and concepts that they will have built to explain how the world around them works. This is a constructivist view of learning, drawing on the work of psychologists such as Piaget and Vygotsky. Leinhardt (1992) stated that the essence of constructivist theory is the idea that learners must individually discover and transform complex information if they are to make it their own.
A misconception can be defined as a view that does not fully coincide with the scientific view. Often these existing ideas are produced through informal play or through watching films and television shows. These ideas are at odds with the accepted science, and they can be difficult to change or reform and become a source of misconceptions when met in formal science lessons (Allen, 2019).
Often these existing ideas are produced through informal play or through watching films and television shows. These ideas are at odds with the accepted science, and they can be difficult to change or reform and become a source of misconceptions when met in formal science lessons (Allen, 2010). Misconceptions can represent a barrier to learning.
In many cases pupils can hold both the ‘misconception’ and the scientific idea at the same time and may use different ways of explaining events in different situations (DFE, 2008). Some misconceptions may persist despite teachers’ best efforts. Even when presented with new evidence pupils may modify it to fit into their existing model.
This video from the Smithsonian explores the ways students learn and develop new conceptual understandings, and shows how student misconceptions can be uncovered and addressed as a part of effective learning:
Strategies for Eliciting Misconceptions
Before a misconception can be corrected, they need to be identified. There are many different strategies a teacher can use to find out what misconceptions pupils have. These ideas can include:
Questioning: The most straightforward way is to ask the pupils directly and elicit their ideas in this way. This could be combined with mini-whiteboards where all pupils can write their answer then hold it up. Diagnostic Question Banks can also be used. The BEST Evidence in Science Teaching pilot project is trialling a bank of diagnostic questions that can reveal misunderstandings.
Concept cartoons: Brenda Keogh and Stuart Naylor pioneered the use of concept cartoons in the early 90’s to promote discussion and elicit and challenge pupils’s ideas. Concept cartoons are used to present a scientific concept within an everyday situation which a group of cartoon pupils are discussing. Different viewpoints are shown, which the pupils might agree or disagree with, revealing any misconceptions. For more on these, see Naylor and Keogh (2012).
(Taken from Science Concept Cartoons® Set 1 Revised Edition (2014) and Science Concept Cartoons® Set 2 (2015). © Millgate House Education Ltd www.millgatehouse.co.uk)
Drawings: Asking the pupils to draw or annotate a picture can give the teacher an idea of what the pupils are thinking. For example if asked to draw different animals do the pupils only draw four legged animals, or do they include snakes/fish/birds etc? (Allen 2012). These diagrams can be used as a basis for further questions.
Concept maps: There are different ways to create concept maps. A simple way is for the teacher to provide all the key words for the pupils to cut out. Associated words are stuck down and linked with pencil lines. Each line is accompanied by a comment explaining why they are linked (Allen 2019)
How do you correct a misconception?
The challenge for a primary teacher is to organise the child’s naive ideas and misconceptions into coherent concepts which are accurate and explicit. These misconceptions cannot be ignored since they are the foundations upon which new knowledge is built. (Pine 2001).
Link any intervention with the prior knowledge. Introduce a situation where the misconception is shown – such as a clip from a movie showing loud explosions in space before discussing that sound cannot travel in a vacuum.
Investigating the concept through practical work can also help address the misconception. Pupils can make their prediction – what they think will happen and why they think that. They can then see if their prediction is correct. If their prediction is shown to be wrong, this can result in cognitive conflict. The pupil will then hopefully reject their wrong idea and assimilate the scientific concept.
Although this relates to making science videos, this video by Derek Muller of Veritasium explains the process of addressing misconceptions which can be adopted into science lessons:
Jasper Green suggests starting with the correct scientific view, then introducing the misconceptions, and explaining why they are wrong. Provide tasks where the students have to demonstrate that they understand the scientific idea, and why the misconception is wrong.
For a comprehensive approach to dealing with a wide range of science misconceptions, then I highly recommend getting hold of a copy of Allen (2019)
This content forms part of a longer course on teaching primary school science which you can access on Udemy. This lecture looks at how to identify and deal with student misconceptions. Access the full course at: https://www.udemy.com/course/teaching-primary-school-science/?referralCode=C3D0239725CBFF420BA3
References
Allen, M., (2019) Misconceptions in Primary Science. Open University Press.
Green, Jasper. Misconceptions and Conceptual Change in Science Education
IOP Spark : Physics Misconceptions
Monach, J., Turford, B., (2019) Common Misconceptions. Levers, Gears and Pulleys. Primary Science Teaching Trust https://pstt.org.uk/application/files/1115/5196/9591/Spring_2019_common_misconceptions.pdf
Muller, D., (2012) The key to effective educational science videos https://youtu.be/RQaW2bFieo8
Naylor, S. and Keogh, B. (2012) Concept Cartoons: what have we learnt? Paper presented at the Fibonacci Project European Conference, Leicester, UK
Naylor S. and Keogh B. (2011) https://www.millgatehouse.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/Concept-Cartoons-Fibonacci-2012.doc
Pine, K., Messer, D., & St. John, K., (2001) Pupils’s Misconceptions in Primary Science: A Survey of teachers’ views, Research in Science & Technological Education,
19:1, 79-9 https://doi.org/10.1080/02635140120046240
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