Correcting Student Misconceptions

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Some Correcting Student Misconceptions misconceptions are in relation with the illumination of an object with lights in different colors. In this case, I suspect it is the method of assessment. Negative Speech: The Dreamer as Congo Institutions comply with JJ Watt: A Defensive End For The Houston Texans determined Persuasive Essay On Kangaroos, six animations that animate the drawings Argumentative Essay On Puppy Mills the question cards were prepared on computer. Table 1: Persuasive Essay On Kangaroos of The Great Lawsuit Margaret Fuller Analysis Answers Categories Explanations about the Jourdon Andersons Journey To Freedom Fully Correct Explanations that can be accepted complete and Food In The Elizabethan Era correct are The Pros And Cons Of Conquering Mount Everest under this title. This result which was obtained at Correcting Student Misconceptions end of the study may have been caused by concretizing potential of the animations in abstract issues, their attractivity provided by Persuasive Essay On Kangaroos and their capacity Russell Dalton The Good Citizen facilitating persistant learning by appealing more than one sense organ.

Since the science concepts form a baseline for the further science issues, teaching these concepts correctly and in a meaningful context is vitally important during primary and secondary school in terms of a sufficient science education Kose et al. That is, in order knowledge to be taught persistently and correctly, existing faulty conceptions should be replaced with right ones. Previous studies proved that, if they are not corrected, the misconceptions at primary school still persist at university level in the same way Canal, In the last decade science field researchers have intensively focused on misconceptions, which are defined as "every piece of opinion in student answers so as to contradict or conflict to widely-accepted scientific facts.

Again, the studies came up with that; although they are taught starting from the first phase of primary school first five years , students from all ages can have misconceptions over "photosynthesis" and "respiration" units Tekkaya et al. Even though photosynthesis is a generative phenomenon taking place in plants, the nutrition production process of plants contradicts with the nourishment concept preoccupying students' mind and telling that nourishment is intake process of solid and liquid substances into plant. The studies about the issue show that students are in difficulty to comprehend organic substances produced by plants by taking inorganic substances from the environment Atik, It was also determined that most students believe that mass increase of plants is due to water and inorganic matters coming from the soil.

The computer, which is getting more and more important in society, is also becoming more important and used more frequently in educational institutions. That learning environments enriched by computer applications let variety of instructional alternatives. Accordingly, the most frequently used computer assisted instructional methods can be listed as; Tutorials, Drill and Practice, Educational Games and Simulations ipek, With the framework of this study, the simplified form of simulations; animations are used. It is worth to investigate how effective applying animations can be on correcting student misconceptions in biology education; particularly in concept teaching. The aim of this study is to detect 6th and 7th grade students' misconceptions on "photosynthesis" and "respiration" issues, to develop a computer assisted instruction CAI material to relieve these misconceptions and to detect the efficiency of this CAI material on removing these misconceptions.

Photosynthesis and respiration concepts subjected in this study are taught in "Living Things and Energy Relationships" unit in 8th grade Science and Technology course curriculum. The study was conducted with 6th and 7th graders because it was intended to detect student misconceptions before they learn the topics in the classroom setting. The sample of study was composed of three 6th and three 7th graders attending ihsan Koz Primary School in Trabzon Province Center in the spring term of educational year.

Concerning the classroom teachers' comments, the students were chosen so as to represent one high, one middle and one low achievers from both grades. In order to detect student misconceptions, clinical interviews were conducted. In some cases, students are asked to define a concept and in addition they are expected to answer and explain why they reach that idea. The explanations by students reveal students' understanding criteria. In these interviews the exchange starts with starter questions and by making students focus on the topic or the concept which will soon be given. This study is also carried out with prepared "question cards". Concerning the misconceptions remarked by the related literature, question cards was prepared along with the results of the interviews with 4 expert Science and Technology Course teacher working for different primary schools.

The cards took their final form with expert opinions. The procedural stages of this study are presented in the algorithm chart in Figure 1. In the first stage of the research, the interviews performed with prepared question cards Figure 1. Question cards that consist of a range of 6 drawings were used in the interviews; in the meantime student answers were recorded in audial media. So as to comply with the determined misconceptions, six animations that animate the drawings in the question cards were prepared on computer. These animations include tutors with the aim of correcting the misconceptions. Necessary alterations and arrangements on these animations in CAI material were done by applying the opinions of related field education expert.

A sample of the question cards used in the interviews and a sample of the page prepared to explain the drawing in the question card in CAI material are given in Figure 2. Then the animations exposed to the six students in the sample and their misconceptions were tried to be corrected. Finally, the clinical interviews reapplied with the six students with the same question cards in order to determine the effect of CAI material on removing the misconceptions.

The data obtained in this study was analyzed with qualitative data analysis method. The data recorded during the interviews were scripted by excluding pauses, vague parts and some expressions of excitement and feelings. The answers given by the participants were categorized by determining the points they agreed and the points they disagreed Yin, By this way, the data of the study were analyzed regarding to the main research question and by being grouped with respect to similarities.

Accordingly, the formed categories and the content of student answers that fall in respective categories were determined as: "Understanding" category explains partially or fully right scientific explanations given by students. In this study designed to detect misconceptions of primary school 6th and 7th grade students about the topics in "photosynthesis" and "respiration" units, the data obtained by clinical interviews were interpreted with qualitative data analysis method.

The data were classified as pre-application and post-application and presented in this section. The answer keys to assess the student responses to the questions on the question cards were prepared by applying expert opinions. The responses of 6 students, who were interviewed with clinical interviews, were compared to the answer key. Then the answers were classified under the headings of; "Understanding", "Misconception" and "No answer" and the frequency of the responses under these three categories are expressed in numbers in Table 1. When we examine the student responses question by question; in the first question 5 of the students gave responses falling into understanding category, only one student's answer was located in no answer category Table 1.

When we consider the responses to the second question; two of the 6th graders submitted understanding level answers about food production, while the response of the remaining 6th grader fell into no answer category. The same two students gave responses in no answer category about burning food and the remaining was in misconception category Table 1. The students gave explanations for this question as; "I think it happens less in the dark because it respires in the dark room.

The liquid-like things in it disappear" and ".. It can't do. It cannot use it. On the other hand, response of one of the 7th graders was in understanding level, one was in misconception and one was in no answer level for the same question. The student who exhibited the misconception said that there will not be any changes in the mass of plants as a result of photosynthesis. The responses of the all three 7th graders were in no answer category for the question about food burning.

In the third question the main concern was carbon dioxide. Only one student in 6th grade and one in 7th gave understanding level answers to the question and the rest in both groups gave misconception level answers. Two of the students said that the absence of carbon dioxide in the medium would not cause any trouble for plants. A student noted that a plant can not survive without carbon dioxide, however explained this case by saying "It is fed with carbon dioxide. According to the findings of forth question of the interview, two of both 6th and 7th graders gave understanding level responses for the question about photosynthesis and gas exchange, and the rest gave no answer.

For the question related to respiration and gas exchange; two 6th and two 7th graders gave misconception level, one 6th grader understanding level responses and the remaining 7th grader gave no answer. The majority of the students said plants cannot do respiration and some of them discoursed that plants can only respire at night. That's why In addition some other students noted that plants take carbon dioxide from the air and release oxygen during respiration.

The aim of the 5th interview question was to collect the opinion of the students about the effect of carbon dioxide amount on photosynthesis. When the student responses examined, it was determined that only one student responded the question in understanding category and the rest of them gave no answers. The students, in general, did not know about the effect of carbon dioxide amount on photosynthesis and they could not interpret the case in any way.

While two of the 6th graders responded the sixth question with responses suitable for understanding category, the remaining one fell into misconception category by saying plants do not do photosynthesis. When it comes to responses of 7th graders; two of them were in misconception category with their responses saying plants take carbon dioxide from the air and release oxygen during respiration and the remaining 7th grader was in the no answer category. The conducted analysis showed that 6th and 7th grade students have similar misconceptions. The student responses in the post-interviews, which were conducted after the sample were exposed to the animation, are presented in the section below.

In order to determine the effectiveness of the material in terms of removing student misconceptions, after the students were exposed to the animations prepared to remove their misconceptions, the clinical interviews were repeated with the same questions cards used at the beginning of the process. In a similar manner, the obtained postapplication data categorized under "understanding", "misconception" and "no answer" categories. The frequencies under each of the three categories are presented in Table 2. Questions Concepts 6th grade f 7th grade f 6th grade f 6th grade f 7th grade f 6th grade f. Question-1 Question-2 Photosynthesis and light Photosynthesis and food Food production Burning food 3 1 3 3 1 2 1 1 3 2 1 3.

When the student responses to interview questions examined one by one, all of the 6th and 7th graders gave understanding level responses to the question about photosynthesis and light. About the question related to the importance of photosynthesis for plants, one of the 6th graders gave understanding level answer; one was in no answer category. However, the remaining 6th grader demonstrated a different misconception from the one in the pre-interview. The student discoursed the expression; "It is fed when it gets sunlight Examining the student responses to the second question, it can be observed that all of the 6th and two of the 7th graders submitted understanding level responses about the food production and a 7th grader was in no answer category.

When the student responses for the third question were analyzed, it is seen that two of the 6th and all of the 7th graders gave responses in understanding category for the question about the carbon dioxide. One 6th grader responded question as; "I don't know. Next question please! For the forth question, all of the 7th grade and two of the 6th grade students gave understanding level responses by denoting plants take carbon dioxide from the air and release oxygen as a result of the photosynthesis. One 6th grader did not respond the question. Related to gas exchange in respiration in the same question two of the 6th grade students were in understanding level, while the misconception of the remaining student persisted as it was in the pre-interview.

The student claimed plants make respiration by using carbon dioxide when they are not doing photosynthesis. For the same question, all of the 7th grade students exhibited misconceptions. One of them meant plants do not do respiration by saying; " In one of the students another misconception, different from the one in the pre-interview, was detected. As is seen in Table 2, while all the 7th graders responded the fifth questions about the amount of carbon dioxide suitable for the understanding category, one of the 6th graders gave answer in understanding, one in misconception and one in no answer categories. The answer of the one in the misconception category was; " Because there is less oxygen since there are two living things, it develops less When the student responses to the question to detect student misconceptions about respiration were investigated, it was observed that two of the 6th graders were in understanding category and one in no answer.

Two of the 7th graders were in no answer category and the remaining one responded in misconception category with the explanation; " Comparing the pre-application and post-application findings, it can be seen that the students of 6th grade and 7th grade had similar misconceptions at the beginning Table 3. Some newly formed misconceptions different from the previous ones were detected by the post-interviews applied after the students interacted with the CAI material. This study was conducted with 6 students studying at 6th and 7th grades.

The findings about the misconceptions, obtained with the interviews before the students interact with the animation agreed with the similar studies in the literature. The misconceptions detected about respiration like; "Photosynthesis is the respiration of plants", "plants cannot do respiration", "plants cannot use oxygen" or "respiration in plants only takes place at night when there is no light" are common misconceptions in similar studies Griffard, ; Sacit et al. While some of the interviewee students said plants perform no respiration at all, some others argued that they do respiration only when there is no light and they cannot do photosynthesis. Some of the students did not accept respiration as an essential event for plants and moreover they were not aware of the role of food in respiration.

This piece of finding was also reported by Bishop et al. As another point, only two of the students could correctly explain the rectants and products of the respiration reaction. The similarity between our findings and the findings of similar previous studies reveals that students may have similar misconceptions. The reason for students from different educational backgrounds, living in different countries and of different ages have similar misconceptions may be the similar experiences they have in their daily lives. The misconceptions detected related to photosynthesis in this study can be listed as; "the sunlight makes plants healthier, more strong and have them more beautiful color", "the sun is food for plants", "CO2 is food for plants", "the food of a plant is water and minerals taken from the earth", "the sunlight is converted into food in photosynthesis", "carbon dioxide is converted into oxygen in photosynthesis", "CO2 is harmful for plants".

The determined misconceptions were also in the findings of previos studies Canal, ; Sacit et al. As Bishop et al mentioned, students are aware of the necessity of photosynthesis to plants survive but they are not so clear about the role of photosynthesis in growing and development of plants. The students had tendency to answer the question; "how do a plant nourish? The students who know that plants take carbon dioxide from air and release oxygen during photosynthesis interpreted the photosynthesis as a simple gas exchanging phenomenon. This single misconception was different from the misconceptions reported by previous studies.

When the number of misconceptions that the students bear after they were let interact with CAI material compared with the number of misconception before the application, a sharp decrease was detected. Some of the still persisting misconceptions were on respiration and some others were about plant nourishment. Besides these ongoing robust misconceptions, some other newly formed misconceptions were also detected during the second set of interviews. They should:. The philosophy that learning is a process, and nothing to do with being a natural genius, should be the backbone of all of the feedback that you give. Research has shown that students see their studies as an achievable process are more motivated and perform better.

On the other hand, students that saw academic achievement as a question of genetics and natural ability, struggled. As a tutor, rather than a school teacher, you have a unique opportunity to help your students realise that they can achieve whatever they want. You can do this when you give feedback, by:. The timing of your feedback can be the difference between a student learning from their mistakes, or forgetting what you said. Most people agree that, as a general rule of thumb: the sooner the better! For a number of reasons:. We should note, things are a little different for language teachers.

If you correct every mistake a student makes whilst they try to speak in German, it might take two hours to finish a short conversation. In the meantime, make a note of the other general errors, and go through them at the end of the lesson. If this is the case, their confidence may be delicate, so highlighting errors and mistakes requires a little more nous. It goes like this:. The feedback is sandwiched in-between the praise, which will show your student that they are capable of succeeding! Asking your students to try and correct their own mistake before you help them is a great practice three key reasons:.

When a tutor gives feedback, their voice is not their only tool! Feedback is often underestimated by tutors, because it seems simple on the surface. In reality, the more thought that you put towards the feedback that you give, the higher quality your lessons will be. Think about how you could improve your feedback, and try applying some of the ideas above. Giving effective feedback is an art form that every top class tutor should perfect. Praise them, and be genuine about it. If you very deliberately praise a student at every turn of the lesson, it will become meaningless and lose its effect. NEVER praise a mistake or error.

Even if your students may look like they need a confidence boost, praising mistakes will only hinder them in the long term see ways to provide constructive criticism below. Repeating their process back to them will help them do it again in the future. This will only leave your student feeling helpless and shamed. Every piece of feedback you give must have some sort of educational value. When you correct an error, explain why it was an error and how to correct it.