What We Call Misconceptions May Be Necessary Stepping-Stones Toward Making Sense of the World

• What are three things you learned from reading this article?
It was a good reinforcement that facts are still needed to help the students, but it also needs to be used as part of the process for students to challenge their own experiences with the new learning through this process where they activate their ideas, experiences, and language to help create deeper understandings which will have a much longer lasting impact compared to the direct memorization.  I also liked the section about having kids share their ideas with one another.  This is often difficult to get all students to have a voice, but you can really understand more about their thinking and their logic.  I also think the section discussing teacher responses is very important. All too often we press forward by giving the answer instead of leading the discussions to help the students discover the answers.

• Why is it important to pre-assessing students’ knowledge prior to teaching a lesson or unit? Preassessing is an important way of understanding what the students bring to the lesson.  It helps us know what some of the preconceptions are as well as gaps.

• What “wacky” ideas (if any) have you heard your students come up with?  In a fun discussion ab out plate tectonics and the evidence of fossils, one student was pretty sure that the bones that were not dinosaurs or prehistoric animals.  In fact, they believed that these animals never existed in the first place.

• Where do you think those ideas originated? The student based his thoughts on the religious beliefs being taught in the household.  

• What will you do differently in your classroom based on these findings?  I will be spending more time working with my teachers to help them see the value of preassessing their students’ knowledge and what their personal understandings are.  It could have a profound impact on helping the kids gain a much deeper and long lasting understanding of the concepts.

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