Conceptual Misunderstanding
As we viewed in Dr. Han's class, conservation is a concept that many children need to be exposed toin order to understand. As teachers, we have to be prepared for concept misunderstanding and how to both prevent and help our students through them. Do you remember any misconceptions you held as a child? How were you able to understand that concept? How do you think this memory will help you with your students in regards to student misunderstandings? How do you think your knowledge of development and developmental stages will help you teach abstract concepts?
posted by Sarah Diaz at 7:39 AM
10 Comments:
There are a number of common misconceptions that young children share in their early years of life, as well as throughout their schooling. This is an inevitable part of development. I believe that part of the learning process and part of transforming these misconceptions to accurate conceptions of our world lies within the “doing” and “experiencing” of these abstract ideas.
Although hard for me to admit, while growing up watching the Care Bears, for a long time I believed that we could jump up and down on clouds. I thought that they were big, fluffy, solid objects (much like big fluffy pillows). Never did it occur to me that if I tried to jump on one, I would fall right through. This was obviously a misconception. Step by step, and with time, through the study of clouds and through more “hands-on” experiences such as flying through a cloud (obviously on a plane), I began to realize the make-up of a cloud and its’ properties. My learning process constituted many modalities and vehicles, lived experiences, and continuous knowledge building.
As teachers, I believe that we need to put ourselves in our students’ shoes; and before teaching any lesson, we must do/perform the lessons or experiments ourselves—repeatedly. We must immerse ourselves in an idea and live it for a while. I believe that through repetition, continuous exposure, discussion, investigation, experimentation, and through multi modes of manipulating a topic/concept, children will be given the opportunity to transform these misconceptions into accurate conceptions of their world. It is undoubtedly a process, which slowly comes to fruition through repetition (continuous exposure). Furthermore, we cannot dictate accurate conceptions/understandings and expect authentic student understanding to be the result. Nor can we anticipate students to truly connect to an idea through our “preaching”. Instead, by using as many of the five senses as possible, we offer students the opportunity to “feel” and actively live this long and complex process of understanding. Learning needs to be a lived experience, especially when we are aiming to change long-held beliefs that students have. The only way to change these long-held beliefs is by allowing them to “see” for themselves through the medium of lived experiences. In doing so, we make learning tangible, meaningful, and personal.
I think of it is this way: when I want to convince someone of something, I use as many ways as possible to prove my point and to bring about change of mind. I use as many mediums as possible to present as many opportunities for them to see for themselves, and consequently change their minds about an idea or belief. Teaching to change misconceptions or to develop conceptions is very much the same idea. Thus, as teachers, we need to be advocates for that idea/concept and present it in as many creative and convincing ways as possible; and as a result, we also make the learning process an exciting and empowering one. In retrospect, when I think of how long it took for me to change my mind about clouds, and that it was a process of many stages, I know this will help me in being more patient and realizing that often times a child’s process of understanding is not immediately visible, and that all these “mini” teachings/lessons will eventually culminate into moments of “ah-has”.
This is all i got: When I was little I hated going to see fireworks because they looked so big that I thought they were going to fall down on us and burn us. I don't remember how I got over that except for maybe just being dragged to a lot of fireworks shows against my will and realizing that I survived them all. But I think that might demonstrate how personal experience is closely related to how we come to understand certain concepts.
I also think it's interesting that when I think back to my experience as a student, I can't remember any major misconceptions that tugged at my soul until I had a profound epiphany. I think I pretty much just did what was asked of me without stopping to really understand why I was doing things. It worked for me, but maybe we should be encouraging our students to go deeper. On the other hand, I've also encountered students who don't really care to know anything more about a concept except for what they'll have to produce on a test to get the right answer. Why shouldn't that be ok? If it gets them to where they want to go. Obviously we want to work towards an appreciation of inquiry and all that good stuff but maybe we should also leave room for those students who just do what they're told, get a right answer and move on. I don't know. I mean we can always push those students to challenge knowledge and work for greater understanding but in the end, does it really matter that I know the deep meaning of the quadratic formula as long as I can use it when it applies? It would be nice, but not necessary for what I want to do with my life. Interesting quandary...
I remember when I was very young; I thought fish never had to sleep because its eyes were always open. I would constantly get to the fishbowl and check to see if it fell asleep. Few years later, in my science class, I learned that fish doesn’t have eyelids therefore when it rests, the eyes will still be open. I remember seeing a picture that illustrated different parts of the fish. We also saw a film that explained how fish lives in the ocean. It became very apparent to me that fish does rest; it just does it in a distinctive way.
I learned and believed that concept because I saw the evidence in the book and the film. With this in mind, when students have misconceptions about something, I think it will be effective to show them compelling evidence such as photos, films, or published results. When something authentic is being presented to the students, it can eradicate their misconceptions and replace them with new concepts.
I think people develop their knowledge differently; therefore people could have diverse knowledge developmental stages. Like Gardner’s multiple intelligences, some learn things though interpersonal tasks, while others might learn it better through musical tasks. I have always been a visual learner, so I might start teaching students abstract concepts through the use of images or demonstrations. If that doesn’t seem to work, then I’ll try other ways to teach the concepts.
Misconceptions I had as a child:
When you could see someone's breath, it was actually dust coming out of one's mouth.
CLARITY: I put dirt in my mouth and dust did not come out in the way that I wanted; I concluded that people were not putting dirt in their mouths in order to make breath visible.
The world was round, but it was flat, like a pancake. I think there was a cartoon in which the earth was portrayed in this way, to be funny.
CLARITY: I don't know how I was disabused of this one; I suppose after seeing globes enough.
Misconception #1 shows me that kids sometimes need to DO in order to learn. Misconception #2 shows me that sometimes lots of exposure is the only way to teach a child something.
Implications for teaching: encourage kids to experiment for themselves, and give them lots of exposure to things for which they cannot conduct experiments themselves.
I think I had quite a lot of common misconceptions. However, I forgot most of them. But I still remember that one time in the math class, my teacher was showing us the volume of a tall glass and the volume of the short but fat glass. In fact the tall glass and the short glass had the same volume of water. But back in that time, I always thought that the tall glass had more water. I insisted my believe until the teacher fill up the short fat glass with the water from the tall glass. There was no water left. Then I began to realize that different objects can have the same volume.
So from this experience, I think the teacher can not just tell the students that what it is right or what it is wrong. We should provide more detail information for them and to prove why it should be this way but not that way. There are a lot of formulas in math. If we would like the students be able to use them well, we should explain the formulas to them with details. I know some teachers just asked the students to memorize the formulas without telling them the reasons.
When dealing with misunderstanding or misconceptions, I don’t think it’s a matter of preventing them, but instead a matter of informing students of how to access facts. The example of student’s misconceptions of the moon, where students thought that the moon followed them was the same misconception that I once had. I thought the moon also followed me. As how to go about addressing students misconception, I believe that it’s not a matter of just informing students with the “correct” facts, but giving them the skills necessary to provide any validation of why they think something is a certain way. It is therefore important to keep in mind the process of how we know something and instill this process into our students, both by modeling and allowing students to explore everything, individually and collaboratively with students. This will allow students to take ownership of their own learning, increasing both curiosity and personal knowledge through concrete personal experiences.
I do not remember one misconception but I remembered my little brother’s misconception. One misconception that Gabriel had was about borrowing when subtracting. He thought that one “borrowed” from the first number and then gave it back when finished subtracting the second set of numbers. He just thought of borrowing as real life act, like borrowing a shirt or laundry detergent.
65- 27 borrowed one from the 6 and made it to a 5 turn the other 5 into 15, then returned the "borrowed one" still keptthe other 5 as 15. So he had 6 15 -27 whixh gave hima an answer of 48
It took practice and deep internal understanding for Gabriel to understand that borrowing was basically change/subtract a tenth or one and add it to the other number. I think that Gabriel really knew the procedure, I showed him step by step and explain it each step. Patience and being really explicit and creative is a great way to teach abstract concepts, or so I belief.
I agree with Yesenia, in that the focus of the lesson should be in preventing misconceptions, but I think sometimes that misconceptions can be prevented with the use of language. For example, recently, one of my student's mothers died and the teachers had to talk to the students about death and what it means. Young children get confused about or misinterpret what death is when different phrases are used (i.e. "passed away"). In this instance, we had to give students "correct" facts about the child's mother in order for them to have some understanding of the magnitude of the situation. They were able to ask us any questions that they had, but death is a difficult concept for children to understand. This is especially true because many adults do not want to talk about death, as it is also an emotionally charged issue. In order for the students to have more experience with death and to, hopefully, understand the concept more, we are getting a class pet. I think that keeping an open dialogue with your students is just as important as completing a lesson.
When you are a young child there is so many misconceptions that they have. I know this because I had many when I was a child. For example, I thought that the moon was made of cheese because it looked like swiss cheese to me.
I think that as teachers is that we should allow children to speak more so we get to know thier understandings of academic concepts. At the same time, where do we as teachers set boundaries for allowing children to keep thier innocence but at the same time not allow children to go through life not knowing important concepts.
Do you remember any misconceptions you held as a child?
Misconceptions in math can be proven wrong. If you have 4 apples and then find 3 more, you will always have 7 apples. Misconceptions about society and children's and adult's abilities to create and be what they see in their mind is very different. Unfortunately, students are taught at a very early age that certain dreams or ideas are 'misconceptions'. I feel that it is important to foster a sense of strength within ones' own self to create what they would like. When music was first recorded on vinyl, many people thought that it was a 'misconception' that sound could be recorded but because of dreamers, we have had some of the most important inventions in the past 200 years.
How were you able to understand that concept? 'Misconceptions' were always explained to me by an authority. (An adult that taught me.)
How do you think this memory will help you with your students in regards to student misunderstandings?
Memories of what is considered right and wrong in society as well as in the eyes of my teacher motivates students. Also, using each situation as a game to be figured out assists students remembering correct conceptions.
How do you think your knowledge of development and developmental stages will help you teach abstract concepts?
Understanding that at each age, we can grasp concepts differently through structured, hands on work according to age and individual background. Relating important concepts to life events will encourage students to remember important concepts.
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