Misconceptions Reconceived: A Constructivist Analysis of Knowledge in Transition

@article{citeulike:393240, abstract = {This article uses a critical evaluation of research on student misconceptions in science and mathematics to articulate a constructivist view of learning in which student conceptions play productive roles in the acquisition of expertise. We acknowledge and build on the empirical results of misconceptions research but question accompanying views of the character, origins, and growth of students' conceptions. Students have often been viewed as holding flawed ideas that are strongly held, that interfere with learning, and that instruction must confront and replace. We argue that this view overemphasizes the discontinuity between students and expert scientists and mathematicians, making the acquisition of expertise difficult to conceptualize. It also conflicts with the basic premise of constructivism: that students build more advanced knowledge from prior understandings. Using case analyses, we dispute some commonly cited dimensions of discontinuity and identify important continuities that were previously ignored or underemphasized. We highlight elements of knowledge that serve both novices and experts, albeit in different contexts and under different conditions. We provide an initial sketch of a constructivist theory of learning that interprets students' prior conceptions as resources for cognitive growth within a complex systems view of knowledge. This theoretical perspective aims to characterize the interrelationships among diverse knowledge elements rather than identify particular flawed conceptions; it emphasizes knowledge refinement and reorganization, rather than replacement, as primary metaphors for learning; and it provides a framework for understanding misconceptions as both flawed and productive.}, author = {Smith, John P. and Disessa, Andrea A. and Roschelle, Jeremy }, citeulike-article-id = {393240}, comment = {Conclude with implications for: * task design, which needs to allow students to construct, connect and refine knowledge structures from existing pieces. * assesment, which needs to be aware of learners' exisitng effective knowledge. * analysis, which needs to start from inferring existing knowledge elements rather than focusing on lack of knowledge. * targeting knowledge systems * discussion rather than confrontation * Analytic microworlds ---=note-separator=--- "We argue for an analytical shift from single units of knowledge to systems of knowledge with numerous elements and complex substructure that may gradually change, and bits and pieces and in different ways." ---=note-separator=--- Functionality of knowledge is central to the understanding of its construction. ---=note-separator=--- Both experts and novices maintain simultaneous complimenting, overlapping and conflicting partial models and task-specific problem solving techniques in any given domain. They move fluently and flexibly between them, making mistakes and recovering from them where adaptation and reconfiguration of the pieces replaces the need for dramatic paradigm shifts. ---=note-separator=--- "The mathematical and scientific knowledge of both experts and nocives is distrubuted across a far greater number of interrelated general and context-specific components than either those analyses of expretise or textbook presentations suggests." ---=note-separator=--- "These results show indicated a fundemental similarity in the systematic charectaristics of masters' and novices' knowledge. It consisted of numerous strategies, groups of which are related by a common terminology... Niether group's reasoning was captured very well by the general strategies typicaly emphasized in textbooks. There was a shared tendency to construct strategies that were tailored to solving specific classes of problems." ---=note-separator=--- "We show that novices can exhibit expert-like behaviour in explaining how a complex but familiar physical system works." ---=note-separator=--- Agrue that confronting misconceptions is an inaffective learning stratagy, and that generaly the misconceptions agenda - while not wrong, is counter productive as a method of educational research. Suggest an alternative of construction and gradual refinement of knowledge structures by building upon, connecting and debugging students' knowledge. ---=note-separator=--- "We suggest that misconceptions, especialy those that are more robust, have their roots in productive and effective knowledge. The key is context - where and how those conceptions are used. There are certainly contexts in which students' existing knowledge is ineffective, or more carefully articulated mathematical and scientific knowledge is unnecessary." }, journal = {The Journal of the Learning Sciences}, keywords = {constructivism, efficiency, evolution, knowledge, misconceptions, narrative, object, pieces, procepts, process, scripts}, number = {2}, pages = {115--163}, posted-at = {2005-11-15 10:56:30}, priority = {0}, title = {Misconceptions Reconceived: A Constructivist Analysis of Knowledge in Transition}, url = {http://www.jstor.org/stable/1466679}, volume = {3}, year = {1993 - 1994} }

TY - JOUR ID - citeulike:393240 L3 - citeulike-article-id:393240 TI - Misconceptions Reconceived: A Constructivist Analysis of Knowledge in Transition JF - The Journal of the Learning Sciences VL - 3 IS - 2 SP - 115 EP - 163 N2 - This article uses a critical evaluation of research on student misconceptions in science and mathematics to articulate a constructivist view of learning in which student conceptions play productive roles in the acquisition of expertise. We acknowledge and build on the empirical results of misconceptions research but question accompanying views of the character, origins, and growth of students' conceptions. Students have often been viewed as holding flawed ideas that are strongly held, that interfere with learning, and that instruction must confront and replace. We argue that this view overemphasizes the discontinuity between students and expert scientists and mathematicians, making the acquisition of expertise difficult to conceptualize. It also conflicts with the basic premise of constructivism: that students build more advanced knowledge from prior understandings. Using case analyses, we dispute some commonly cited dimensions of discontinuity and identify important continuities that were previously ignored or underemphasized. We highlight elements of knowledge that serve both novices and experts, albeit in different contexts and under different conditions. We provide an initial sketch of a constructivist theory of learning that interprets students' prior conceptions as resources for cognitive growth within a complex systems view of knowledge. This theoretical perspective aims to characterize the interrelationships among diverse knowledge elements rather than identify particular flawed conceptions; it emphasizes knowledge refinement and reorganization, rather than replacement, as primary metaphors for learning; and it provides a framework for understanding misconceptions as both flawed and productive. KW - constructivism KW - efficiency KW - evolution KW - knowledge KW - misconceptions KW - narrative KW - object KW - pieces KW - procepts KW - process KW - scripts N1 - Conclude with implications for: * task design, which needs to allow students to construct, connect and refine knowledge structures from existing pieces. * assesment, which needs to be aware of learners' exisitng effective knowledge. * analysis, which needs to start from inferring existing knowledge elements rather than focusing on lack of knowledge. * targeting knowledge systems * discussion rather than confrontation * Analytic microworlds N1 - "We argue for an analytical shift from single units of knowledge to systems of knowledge with numerous elements and complex substructure that may gradually change, and bits and pieces and in different ways." N1 - Functionality of knowledge is central to the understanding of its construction. N1 - Both experts and novices maintain simultaneous complimenting, overlapping and conflicting partial models and task-specific problem solving techniques in any given domain. They move fluently and flexibly between them, making mistakes and recovering from them where adaptation and reconfiguration of the pieces replaces the need for dramatic paradigm shifts. N1 - "The mathematical and scientific knowledge of both experts and nocives is distrubuted across a far greater number of interrelated general and context-specific components than either those analyses of expretise or textbook presentations suggests." N1 - "These results show indicated a fundemental similarity in the systematic charectaristics of masters' and novices' knowledge. It consisted of numerous strategies, groups of which are related by a common terminology... Niether group's reasoning was captured very well by the general strategies typicaly emphasized in textbooks. There was a shared tendency to construct strategies that were tailored to solving specific classes of problems." N1 - "We show that novices can exhibit expert-like behaviour in explaining how a complex but familiar physical system works." N1 - Agrue that confronting misconceptions is an inaffective learning stratagy, and that generaly the misconceptions agenda - while not wrong, is counter productive as a method of educational research. Suggest an alternative of construction and gradual refinement of knowledge structures by building upon, connecting and debugging students' knowledge. N1 - "We suggest that misconceptions, especialy those that are more robust, have their roots in productive and effective knowledge. The key is context - where and how those conceptions are used. There are certainly contexts in which students' existing knowledge is ineffective, or more carefully articulated mathematical and scientific knowledge is unnecessary." AU - Smith, John AU - Disessa, Andrea AU - Roschelle, Jeremy PY - 1993 - 1994/// UR - http://www.jstor.org/stable/1466679 ER -