Mentor materials
Uncovering misconceptions
Intended outcomes
The intended outcomes of this topic are for Early Career Teachers to: Learn that:
- Where prior knowledge is weak, pupils are more likely to develop misconceptions, particularly if new ideas are introduced too quickly
Learn how to building 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
Activities
Reflection on learning (5 minutes)
Ask the ECT whether they have taught the section of the lesson that they scripted in the last topic.
- What did they notice?
- What went well?
- What will they do differently next time?
Exploring the key ideas of the topic (10 minutes)
Pose the question: What is a misconception?
Definition: Misconceptions are ‘a belief or an idea that is not based on correct information, or that is not understood by people’ (Oxford Dictionary).
Pose the question: What are examples of misconceptions that you have come across so far in your teaching?
The ECT may be confident to list examples of misconceptions. If they are struggling, the mentor could help them by sharing some examples from their own subject or phase, or use some of the list of examples below:
- Misconceptions in spelling e.g. Houseing
- Misconceptions in maths e.g. 62 = 12
- Misconceptions in science e.g. a ton of feathers is lighter than a ton of iron
- Misconceptions in humanities e.g. the countries we have today have always existed
- Misconceptions in MFL e.g. a pupil who can talk confidently must be fluent.
Explain to the ECT that the purpose of today’s topic is to think about misconceptions in the classroom linked to introducing new content.
There are two parts to this:
- Understanding that misconceptions can form when introducing new material based on weak or shallow prior knowledge
- Understanding that misconceptions might already exist and need to be addressed before they are embedded further.
Avoiding misconceptions forming (20 minutes)
The best thing a teacher can do is to anticipate misconceptions that might arise, and plan to prevent them forming in the first place.
Ask the ECT to share an upcoming lesson or topic they will be teaching. Together list out all of the possible misconceptions that a pupil might have, potentially based on weak prior knowledge, about this topic.
Identify possible misconceptions that could form when teaching the new topic.
If the ECT doesn’t have an example to hand or the mentor doesn’t feel confident to work with them on the misconceptions in their particular subject area, either invite a subject or phase specialist from their area to support with this activity or use the generic example below.
Pose the question: Now that you are aware of these possible misconceptions, how will you plan to avoid them forming?
Possible ideas might include:
- Explicitly drawing attention to the misconception
- Showing an example when it is and when it isn’t true
- Asking pupils to check their understanding and making corrections as you go.
Example:
An upcoming topic that you want to teach a group of pupils in a life-skills lesson is about going shopping. You will teach over a few lessons and culminate in a trip to the shops with your class to buy the ingredients for a cooking lesson.
Possible misconceptions a pupil might have:
- They might think food shopping only gets delivered if their parents use a delivery service.
- They might think that you don’t have to pay for shopping (especially if it is delivered).
- They might think you can only pay on credit or debit card or only in cash.
- They might think you can always get everything you need in one shop.
- They might think that you have to drive to the shops.
- They might think that you should always buy the deal when it is on.
Possible misconceptions they might form:
- The bus is always free (if you have to travel by bus)
- The supermarket is always quiet (if you go at a quiet time)
- You always get to swipe your own bar-codes (if you use the self-service)
- You always use up all of the ingredients you buy (if you’re cooking for a group).
Uncovering emerging misconceptions (20 minutes)
Now that the ECT is aware that misconceptions may form as they introduce new content, work together to develop some strategies that they can use to encourage pupils to share emerging understanding and points of confusion so that they can address the misconceptions as they are forming.
In the self-directed study materials, there are two more examples that the ECT can try. The mentor could add their own ideas or share from the list in Handout 2.3.
Go through the list together and choose one or two that they feel would suit their class.
Work together to plan how this would work in this classroom:
- Which topic will they teach it with?
- How will they introduce the approach to the pupils?
- Do they need any resources/changes in their classroom to make it work?
- What questions will they ask to uncover the pupils’ understanding for that particular topic?
Planning for action
Ask the ECT to choose at least one of the activities above to encourage pupils to share emerging understanding of the topic they will teach. Agree when they will do this and ask them to bring their reflections to the next meeting.
In the next mentor topic, you will be looking at sequencing content from foundational to more complex. The ECT will need to provide an example of a topic which they will teach, likely over a few lessons. Discuss now what this might be and ask the ECT to decide and bring it with them to the next meeting.