Teacher students’ beliefs about and strategies for dealing with students’ misconceptions
Abstract
Misconceptions impact learning and behavior. Students’ misconceptions are often persistent. But research has shown that some strategies of dealing with them are more likely to lead to conceptual change than others. Thus, it is important for teachers that they can notice students’ misconceptions and then use evidence-based strategies to deal with them. This study uses data from online questionnaires. Data was collected in the German speaking area of Switzerland. The sample consists of geography and/or RZG teacher students for secondary school that had already taught in school (n=83). RZG is a subject similar to social studies. The results show that the majority of participants saw themselves as constructivist. Yet, a considerable share said they had not noticed any misconceptions in their students. Of those who did, a large share did not describe any strategy how they dealt with them. Among those who described a strategy, evidence-based strategies were rare. Some were not even mentioned once. Thus, it seems that conceptual change research does not impact the practice of many teacher students. Teacher students need to learn more about evidence-based conceptual change strategies and how to apply them to their practice. More research is needed on how to more effectively help them to do so.References
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