EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY

Chapter 6, page 113

FINDING OUT ABOUT STUDENTS’ PRIOR CONCEPTIONS

A core theme of this chapter is that it is vital for teachers to understand their students’ prior
conceptions. If teachers are aware of what their students’ prior conceptions are, they will design better
instruction. Despite the great benefit to teachers of finding out about their students’ prior conceptions,
many teachers do this much less than they should (Morrison & Lederman, 2003). New teachers are
particularly unlikely to find out about students’ prior conceptions and thus unlikely to develop instruction
that takes prior conceptions into account (Meyer, 2004). More experienced, expert teachers know much
more about students’ prior knowledge, which enables them to find ways to adapt instruction effectively
(Meyer, 2004).
How can teachers find out about their students’ prior conceptions? The techniques teachers can use
include:
Ɣ Administer pretests at the beginning of a unit to assess students’ prior conceptions.
Ɣ Talk with or even interview students in informal settings (after school, during down time in class).
Ɣ Hold class discussions with questions about students’ ideas on a topic.
Ɣ During small group work, talk with groups of students about their ideas on a topic.
Ɣ To evaluate conceptions about learning and epistemology, administer questionnaires that researchers
have developed and that teachers can administer in their own classrooms. (Several examples are
included in online resources.)
Ɣ Read research that describes common alternative conceptions, common novice conceptions, and
conceptual resources that can be drawn on to teach various topics.
It is important not to overlook the last technique—reading research. There are many hundreds of studies
by researchers investigating students’ prior conceptions, and these studies yield many insights that
teachers would never be able to uncover all on their own. Books are available that summarize important
research on alternative conceptions (e.g., Barrett & Buchanan-Barrow, 2005; Rosalind Driver, Squires,
Rushworth, & Wood-Robinson, 1994; Vosniadou, in press).
As teachers ask questions to find out what their students are thinking, it is important that they ask
questions to which students have not already memorized the answers. Asked what water is made of, most
upper elementary and middle schools students who have started learning about matter will answer the
word they have memorized, “molecules.” But the student may mean that molecules are tiny drops of water
or that molecules are lumps of clay surrounded by water. If the teacher asks questions that require
students to think more creatively, she can get a better idea of what their real conceptions are. For example,
in this exchange, the teacher asks questions that clarify what one of her fifth grade students thinks
molecules are.
The conversation:
Teacher: You said that water is made of molecules. Is it
possible to divide water molecules in half?
Sophie: Yeah.
Teacher: What would we get?

Commentary:

Here is the first question that requires the

student to think.

Sophie: The water would come out and get in the

other water.

This answer shows that Sophie is not thinking

of molecules in the same way that the teacher is.

Teacher: How would the water get out?

Sophie: The little shell would crack.

Teacher: And what do you mean by “the other water.”

Sophie: All the water that is between the water

molecules. The molecules float in all the other

water.

The teacher now follows up to find out what the

student means. The answers reveal that the

student thinks that water molecules are little

shells filled with water, and there is more water

between these shells, which float on all this

water. Now the teacher has a much better

understanding of Sophie’s ideas.

When teachers ask questions to assess prior conceptions, the questions should require students to think so
that they cannot give rote responses.