As students acquire new knowledge, they make sense of it by incorporating it into their existing frameworks of knowledge. Yet, if that information is incorrect and the students do not know that the information is incorrect, they will incorporate it into their existing knowledge frameworks unknowingly. Once embedded within an existing knowledge framework, it is often very difficult to correct those misconceptions.
In this study, researchers tested a potentially effective way to correct misconceptions about four concepts: global warming, the greenhouse effect, acid rain, and ozone layer depletion. The research team focused on these scientific concepts because prior research has suggested that students often have misconceptions about them, and those misconceptions might lead the students to make environmental decisions based on faulty knowledge.
The researchers set up a study in four Malaysian classrooms with 16- and 17-year-old students. The classes were in similarly sized schools, the students were from similar socioeconomic backgrounds, and the educators had similar teaching qualifications. All 73 students participating in the research study completed a pre- and posttest that included 13 three-part questions that asked the students to provide: (1) a response to a factual question based on each of the four concepts; (2) an explanation of their answer; and (3) an estimation of their level of confidence in their answer. After the posttest, researchers randomly selected 10 students to participate in interviews.
In between the pre- and posttest, the educators provided five weeks of instruction. In two of the classes (38 students in total), the educators taught the standard biology course using the regular science curriculum. These two classrooms acted as the control group, and the educators taught lessons on the four subjects using a teacher-centered lecture followed by small group discussions.
The experimental condition consisted of two classes, totaling 35 students. After presenting the information in a traditional format, the educators used hands-on activities that pertained to real-world issues and focused on the concepts of global warming, acid rain, ozone layer depletion, and the greenhouse effect. The students were split into small groups where they participated in discussions that were meant to surface their misconceptions and incite cognitive conflict. By creating a learning environment in which students were forced to examine conflicting information, they had to reconstruct, interpret, and modify their existing knowledge bases.
The results showed the students in the experimental group exhibited better understanding of all four subjects than their control-group counterparts. Specifically, although both groups showed gains in knowledge from pre- to posttest, only the experimental group showed gains that were statistically significant. These results were supported by the post interviews with students. While the control group still tended to exhibit misconceptions after the five weeks, the experimental group developed better understanding of the four subjects.
The Bottom Line
<p>A lot of scientific misinformation exists, particularly related to controversial topics such as climate change, acid rain, greenhouse gases, and ozone layer depletion. Correcting misconceptions related to such topics may be challenging and cannot be done through simply sharing the correct information; rather, students must be able to examine their own knowledge alongside the correct knowledge, realize that there is a conflict between the two ways of conceptualizing the issue, and participate in an active process of incorporating that new information into their knowledge frameworks. Educators can help students do this by organizing activities that encourage students to engage in deeper dialogue, grapple with complex real-world situations, and discuss the information themselves.</p>
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