Video
Video transcript
Presenter intro: Chloe Wardle
As pupils learn something new, they begin to form and modify complex mental models in their memory. They connect new content to existing knowledge that they hold. Whilst it would be great to think that they will only add accurate information to their mental models, the reality is somewhat different. Along the way pupils are likely to pick up lots of misconceptions. Gaps may also appear in pupils’ mental models. Teachers need to identify the gaps and misconceptions that pupils may hold so that they can help their pupils to correct them.
Presenter main
Misconceptions are beliefs which conflict with what is to be learned. This differs from lack of knowledge, where pupils have gaps in their understanding about a topic. Misconceptions also differ from mistakes. An example of a mistake might be spelling a word wrong. The pupil knows how to spell the word correctly but has forgotten in that moment. It’s just an oversight. A misconception on the other hand can often be deeply rooted.
Misconceptions exist in every subject and phase. In early years, pupils might think that when leaves fall off the trees in autumn, the trees are dying, or in science pupils often think that when liquids evaporate they have disappeared. Misconceptions like this can cause a significant barrier to pupils’ learning so we need to do something about them.
Here’s one approach that teachers can take to misconceptions. First, identify what misconceptions pupils may hold. Next, plan a series of questions to check if your pupils do hold them or not. Lastly, adapt your teaching to address misconceptions that you find.
When identifying misconceptions it’s best to focus first on the most significant misconceptions that many pupils hold. Individual pupils will hold lots of specific misconceptions depending on their prior knowledge. But to make this process manageable for teachers it is good to prioritise the most important misconceptions that will create a barrier to learning.
Another thing to bear in mind is that anticipating misconceptions can be hard to do so it’s important to draw on the experience of subjects and phase colleagues, which may help. If teachers think about the misconceptions that their pupils are likely to hold about particular content before they teach it to them, then they will be more likely to know what to do when they spot them. They can aim to guide their pupils around misconceptions to prevent them forming part of their mental model.
Presenter exemplification framing
In the next example, you will see a model of how to identify misconceptions. As you listen, pay particular attention to how the coach does the following:
- Identifies common misconceptions
- Uses assessments to check for prior knowledge and pre-existing misconceptions
Exemplification: Ambition Institute coach
The purpose of this model, imagine that I will be teaching my year seven geography class about plate boundaries and their interactions. I need to make sure that pupils have a really firm understanding of plate tectonics. As part of my planning for the lesson, I discuss this with a colleague who had taught the topic before, and she reminded me that this is something that pupils often get quite confused about. She highlighted two misconceptions that are particularly common. Here are the misconceptions.
- Each continent has its own plate.
- Continents sit on top of (but apart from) plates. In this instance, a simple true or false question will help. I can get pupils to read each statement and tell me if they think it is true or false. This will give me a really quick snapshot of what the whole class believe. If I find out they hold either misconception, I can deliver a pre-prepared response to address it there and then.
Presenter exemplification analysis
Let’s focus on a couple of things in this model. First, the teacher made sure that they thought about potential misconceptions in advance of teaching their lesson. They worked with an experienced colleague who made sure that they were focusing on a common misconception that many pupils held.
Second, the teacher planned a really quick way of assessing to see if pupils held either misconception by asking a direct question. If they said that either statement was true the teacher can be fairly safe to assume that pupils hold this misconception and so they can adapt their teaching.
Notice how they checked for one misconception at a time. It is important to do this so that you can pinpoint the precise misconception that the pupils hold and then address it.
Presenter key ideas
In this video, we considered what the term misconception means and how teachers can begin to identify them. Before we finish, take a moment to read through the key ideas that the video has covered. Which of the following ideas do you think that the example illustrated the best?
- Being aware of common misconceptions and discussing with experienced colleagues how to help pupils master important concepts
- Using assessments to check for prior knowledge and pre-existing misconceptions
- Structuring tasks and questions to enable the identification of knowledge gaps and misconceptions (e.g. by using common misconceptions within multiple-choice questions)
Presenter summary
Knowing your pupils’ prior knowledge of misconceptions can help you address barriers to learning. With sufficient planning to expose gaps in prior knowledge and misconceptions, you can ensure pupils get the support they need.