Revisiting Science Misconceptions: How are we doing?

Misconceptions in science continue in K-12 settings. Although "A Nation at Risk" helped spearheaded the development of creative instructional strategies, concept maps, and a multitude of other reforms, many basic science concepts remain misunderstood by students. Recent research conducted by the author and colleagues finds it difficult to determine if a student knows and understands a scientific concept when the student cannot find the language necessary to explain what s/he thinks they know. In fact, student explanations for understandings are often confusing and include mixed conceptual ideas. This session discusses the findings, instructional tools, and the use of academic language as a tool for conceptual development. In my research, I found it difficult to determine if students know and understand scientific concepts. A majority of students surveyed were unable to use language to explain what they think they know, and explanations were often confusing, containing mixed concepts. This demonstrates the importance of teacher content, academic language, and active engagement in learning through doing science. We will focus on how to identify whether or not students have the language necessary to explicitly explain their scientific understandings, and how we can help them to develop their skills through the consistent use of academic language to mitigate scientific misconceptions. Embedded will be the importance of content knowledge and active engagement in teaching and learning. This interactive dialogue and activity is designed to provoke thinking about strong content background, engagement of students in learning, and related clusters of vocabulary to express content (i.e. acid vs base, or fault vs earthquakes). Total number of students who either agreed or disagreed with a statement.

Comparing the correctness of the agree or disagree statements with written explanations.