Correcting science misconceptions – a hands-

on approach

Dr Michael AllenScience Education, Brunel University

Car collisions

• Choose a partner!

Some reflections…

• Did you feel excited at the end, at revelation?

• Did you experience fear of failure?• What did you feel when you found out you

were right / wrong?• Did you feel like you in a competition?• Did you take note of other people’s data?• If you collected data that disagreed with

your expectations, did you feel the need to cheat?

60kg

190kg

Who has the most energy?

Kinetic energy = ½ mv2

Kelly

= 0.5 x 60kg x 52m/s = 750 J

Andy

= 0.5 x 190kg x 52m/s = 2375 J

• Observations made at the limits of perceptual resolution are often ambiguous

• Interpretation is influenced by expectations

• Bluff demonstrations are a useful pedagogical tool

• Several bluff activities that focus on a single scientific idea

• Early activities are less resolved, later are more resolved (support the scientific answer)

Predict DistanceSound

Blu TacLoose

massesBlock

RampFinal

choice

S1

0

10

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30

40

50

60

70

80

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% c

orre

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Activity

Car collisions lesson 6

• Scientific Discovery lessons (SciDis)

• A book of 18 experiments• Each focuses on a

particular misconception• Minimally constructivist

roots

Misconceptions• The speed of a falling object

remains constant throughout its descent.

• A black container will keep in more heat than a silver one (because ‘black attracts heat’).

• The mass of an object has no effect on its kinetic energy.

• Chemical or physical changes are either exothermic or involve no heat change.

• All materials lose mass when heated.

• Expectation-related observation (ERO) study

• Large scale and long term• GLP involved 1023 pupils

from several schools in Windsor and Maidenhead

• SciDis had superior gains to control that were maintained over 3 years

• Successful learning was associated with intensity of emotion

• Intensity of emotion linked to EROs

Temporal progress of treatment and control groups

0102030405060708090

100

Pre-test Post-test Delayedpost-test

2 year post-test

3 year post-test

Test

Mea

n %

co

rrec

t

• EROs not reduced with repeated exposure

• EROs strongly linked with an affinity to predictions

• Social dimension• Typical personality traits

Increases Feedback

Enhanced by low ability

Need to find the ‘right answer’

Need to conform with others

Loss of emotional control

Inhibition reduction

Affectual arousal

ERO-related behaviours

Need to align theory and data

Some ERO-related traits

Lower ability

male

Disagree more with their partners when not AEing

Can think of themselves as excellent observers of scientific phenomena

Attaches importance to discovery of the accepted scientific theory

Can negate data that do not conform to expectations, and either a) repeats the reading, or b) invents a replacement reading. Justifications for negation include apparatus faults

May have a diminished view of the worth of own data, allowing the findings of others to take precedence over them

Show bias during subjective activities, and declare certainty about these decisions

Takes a competitive approach to learning

Thank you for listening!

• Further information…

• michael.allen@brunel.ac.uk