Learning outcomes

The intended outcomes of this activity are for you to:

Learn that:

• Prior knowledge plays an important role in how pupils learn; committing some key facts to their long-term memory is likely to help pupils learn more complex ideas
• Where prior knowledge is weak, pupils are more likely to develop misconceptions, particularly if new ideas are introduced too quickly
• Worked examples that take pupils through each step of a new process are also likely to support pupils to learn

Learn how to build on pupils’ prior knowledge, by:

• Identifying possible misconceptions and planning how to prevent these forming
• Encouraging pupils to share emerging understanding and points of confusion so that misconceptions can be addressed

In your notepad

As you work this through activity try to answer the following questions:

• why is it important to take prior knowledge into account?
• what is a misconception?
• how does prior knowledge affect whether pupils develop misconceptions?
• what can teachers do to prevent misconceptions forming if prior knowledge is weak?