Chapter 6, page 114
When teachers strive understand their students’ conceptions, they assume the role of an intent
listener--both literally and figuratively (Ballenger & Rosebery, 2003). Literally, they listen attentively to
what their students say, reflecting on the meanings that might lie behind the students’ comments.
Figuratively, teachers “listen” to their students when they read students’ written work. As teachers read
students’ papers, they look for clues to how their students are thinking. An error on a written quiz is no
longer just an error; each error gives the teacher a window into students’ thinking, and this window
enables teachers to begin to see what their students’ conceptions are.
In their role as listeners, teachers are also alert to surprising things that students say or write.
Suppose in a social studies discussion, a student, Anna, says, “The British would have been mad that all
the people in the Unites States wanted to make their own country.” On hearing this, the teacher notes
several possible implications of what Anna said. First, Anna speaks of the people “in the United States.”
Is this a slip of the tongue, or does Anna really think that the United States already existed, even before the
Revolutionary War? If so, what does Anna think the war was about? In addition, the sentence indicates
that Anna mistakenly thinks that all people in the colonies were for independence. Perhaps Anna thinks
more generally that all people in a country support a country’s wars. The teacher cannot know right now
which of these possibilities is correct and which is not. The teacher will need to follow up later with other
questions to find out more about the ideas of Anna and her classmates. The teacher can also encourage
students to ask their own questions, which can give her further insights into their thinking. If Anna asks
why the colonists needed their own country when they were already part of the United States, the teacher
will know that Anna has an alternative conception that the colonies were already a nation prior to the
Revolutionary War.
In short, an effective teacher listens for student statements and questions that might indicate
alternative conceptions or conceptual resources and makes some conjectures about what those conceptions
might be. Then, the teacher follow ups on these conjectures by asking more questions in formal pretests, in
class discussions, in discussions with groups during group work, or with individual students out of class.
EXTENSIONSIn the final section of this chapter, we discuss how the ideas of this chapter apply to children of
differing ages, to children of different cultures and languages, and to students with learning disabilities.
Development
The ideas in this chapter are generally applicable to students of all ages. Students of all ages have
consistent conceptions, alternative conceptions, novice conceptions, conceptual resources, and conceptions
about learning and knowledge.
One form of knowledge for which there is a clear developmental trend is in novice conceptions.
Young children are novices on nearly every topic. Thus, teachers of young children can expect to see
novice conceptions on many topics that they discuss. This is not to say that young children are never
experts on any topics; some five-year olds, for example, develop expertise on topics such as dinosaurs.
But as children grow older, they slowly take steps on the road to expertise on more and more topics.
Another area in which developmental trends occur is in conceptions of learning and knowledge.
Older learners are more likely to be aware of active learning strategies than younger learners (Flavell,
1999, 2004). On the other hand, as children get older, they are more likely to adopt a fixed view of ability,
especially on activities at which that they are not proficient (Freedman-Doan et al., 2000). This suggests
that as students get older, teachers need to work especially hard to help students understand that they can
overcome difficulties and succeed even on activities that they are currently less successful at.
Much research supports the idea that there is a developmental trend in epistemological conceptions
(P. M. King & Kitchener, 1994; Kuhn, 2002; Kuhn & Weinstock, 2002; W. Perry, G., Jr., 1999).