- The sun is not a star.
Work and Power
- Failing to be able to identify the direction in which a force is acting.
- Believing that any force times any distance is work.
- Believing that machines put out more work than we put in.
- Not realizing that machines simply change the form of the work we do (i.e. trade off force
for distance or distance for force).
III. How can teachers best address students' science misconceptions?
[From: http://www.indiana.edu/~w505a/studwork/deborah/#4 ]
A teacher who expects to simply point out students' mistakes to them will be met with little
success; as stated previously, misconceptions are not easily given up. Often children work very hard
to process information and arrive at their ideas. It takes just as much work to deconstruct those
ideas and let go of the incorrect ones.
The first step is to be aware of and diagnose students’ misconceptions. This involves going
beyond the multiple choice assessment-- to asking open ended, probing questions and truly listening
to students' ideas. Eliminating misconceptions also involves structuring experiences and the learning
environment so that there are opportunities for students to "test out" their ideas and prove the
correct concepts to themselves. This method is often referred to as teaching for conceptual change.
A teacher might try the following methods to help students overcome their misconceptions:
Anticipate the most common misconceptions about the material and be alert for others.
Encourage students to test their conceptual frameworks in discussion with other
students and by thinking about the evidence and possible tests.
Think about how to address common misconceptions with demonstrations and lab
work.
Revisit common misconceptions as often as possible in class.
Assess and reassess often the validity of student concepts.NOTE: This last section is taken from- Dealing with Science Misconceptions, Part II. California Journal of Science Education,
CSTA Volume VII, Issue 2, Spring 2007.