3
misconceptions can also surface in the middle of a lesson when we may not necessarily be
looking for them, and that’s okay too. If we know a
misconception exists in any part of a lesson
cycle, we can and should address it.
One way to detect a misconception is to listen to student discussions. If you hear something
suspicious, be inquisitive. Ask the student why or how, or say, “Tell me more.” Do this regardless
of whether a student is on the right track or not so that they become accustomed to explaining
their thinking. Determine whether students have a conceptual understanding or have simply
memorized or copied an answer or restated what someone else said. Also, equal opportunity
questioning keeps students from automatically assuming they are wrong when you question
them. Another way of truly understanding how s
tudents think is through their writing or
drawings. Provide open-ended questions as prompts. Allow an
ywhere from 3 to 15 minutes
for students to answer depending on the time available and the complexity of the question
or concept being addressed. Some students may find writing or drawing less threatening
than verbally explaining their thinking in front of the class. If students struggle with writing,
implement a quick think-pair-share activity to allow v
erbal processing in a safe setting
before writing explanations. You can further support their writing through the use of
sentence stems or sentence frames.
Various formative assessment strategies exist to detect misconceptions. You will see some
of these strategies used to detect the misconceptions addressed in this book. Templates for
creating your own activities to detect misconceptions can be found in the Appendix.
Confronting Misconceptions
Once we know t
hat a misconception exists, we have to provide an opportunity for students to
confront it. Confronting a misconception is much more difficult than detecting or replacing it
because we have to create cognitive dissonance, the mental discomfort that occurs when faced
with two conflicting ideas (Cherry 2022). Effective cognitive dissonance requires deep thinking
and often results in an uncomfortable encounter for the student and the teacher. The brain
seeks to make new inf
ormation fit within existing schema, or how t
hat person understands an
idea or concept. When new inf
ormation clashes with existing schema, the person is forced to
mentally struggle to make sense of the new inf
ormation. Changing incorrect thinking requires
reconfiguring brain pathways and replacing existing schema. This is a mentally exhausting task!
An established safe learning environment is critical for students to more readily engage in this
step because it can be unsettling to own and reconcile faulty thinking in front of one’s peers
and a teacher. Students are more likely to face their misconceptions when they are in an
open-minded, supportive physical and mental space.
As with Detect, more than one way to confront misconceptions exists. If students built a model
or drew an
illustration for the Detect activity, an effective Confront activity would be asking
students to compare and study their models or drawings to a model, illustration, phenomenon,
or investigation that demonstrates the correct idea or concept. This could also be accomplished
misconceptions can also surface in the middle of a lesson when we may not necessarily be
looking for them, and that’s okay too. If we know a
misconception exists in any part of a lesson
cycle, we can and should address it.
One way to detect a misconception is to listen to student discussions. If you hear something
suspicious, be inquisitive. Ask the student why or how, or say, “Tell me more.” Do this regardless
of whether a student is on the right track or not so that they become accustomed to explaining
their thinking. Determine whether students have a conceptual understanding or have simply
memorized or copied an answer or restated what someone else said. Also, equal opportunity
questioning keeps students from automatically assuming they are wrong when you question
them. Another way of truly understanding how s
tudents think is through their writing or
drawings. Provide open-ended questions as prompts. Allow an
ywhere from 3 to 15 minutes
for students to answer depending on the time available and the complexity of the question
or concept being addressed. Some students may find writing or drawing less threatening
than verbally explaining their thinking in front of the class. If students struggle with writing,
implement a quick think-pair-share activity to allow v
erbal processing in a safe setting
before writing explanations. You can further support their writing through the use of
sentence stems or sentence frames.
Various formative assessment strategies exist to detect misconceptions. You will see some
of these strategies used to detect the misconceptions addressed in this book. Templates for
creating your own activities to detect misconceptions can be found in the Appendix.
Confronting Misconceptions
Once we know t
hat a misconception exists, we have to provide an opportunity for students to
confront it. Confronting a misconception is much more difficult than detecting or replacing it
because we have to create cognitive dissonance, the mental discomfort that occurs when faced
with two conflicting ideas (Cherry 2022). Effective cognitive dissonance requires deep thinking
and often results in an uncomfortable encounter for the student and the teacher. The brain
seeks to make new inf
ormation fit within existing schema, or how t
hat person understands an
idea or concept. When new inf
ormation clashes with existing schema, the person is forced to
mentally struggle to make sense of the new inf
ormation. Changing incorrect thinking requires
reconfiguring brain pathways and replacing existing schema. This is a mentally exhausting task!
An established safe learning environment is critical for students to more readily engage in this
step because it can be unsettling to own and reconcile faulty thinking in front of one’s peers
and a teacher. Students are more likely to face their misconceptions when they are in an
open-minded, supportive physical and mental space.
As with Detect, more than one way to confront misconceptions exists. If students built a model
or drew an
illustration for the Detect activity, an effective Confront activity would be asking
students to compare and study their models or drawings to a model, illustration, phenomenon,
or investigation that demonstrates the correct idea or concept. This could also be accomplished
