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Misconception Alchemy
Turning thought-lead into thought-gold
Derek Muller
Current trends
• Science and technology
– In society
– In education
• Criticism of education
• Search for the silver bullet – flipped class?
• Misconceptions abound
– Indicator
– Obstacle
Misconceptions
• Please refer to www.veritasium.com
• Please see
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EwxbZcL7
DZA for some misconception examples
Have you seen any Veritasium videos?
A.
B.
C.
D.
None
1
A handful
All of them
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Outline
•
•
•
•
•
Multimedia studies
Misconceptions
Percolation theory of learning
Implications
A song?
Where was I born?
Sacramento, CA
Traralgon, VIC
Pretoria, SA
Kelowna, BC
Where was I born?
Traralgon, VIC
My PhD Research
• How should you design multimedia
presentations to promote conceptual
learning in physics?
• Direct application to multimedia design
• Implications for teaching
• Controlled, transparent, repeatable means
of testing instructional strategies
• Testing in real learning environments
Hasn’t it been done?
• Passé
• “Quite frankly, with few exceptions, there
is not a body of research on the design,
use and value of multimedia systems”
(Moore et al. 2004)
• Why not?
– Hype and excitement in place of research
– Shifting perspectives on education
– Asking the wrong questions
– Rushed implementation in schools
A simple experiment
• Decide on learning objectives → set of test
questions
1. Pre-test students online
2. Present video
3. Post-test with same questions
• Ask them to rate confidence in answers
• Interview them – do they think they learned?
Learning outcomes
• Newton’s First and Second Laws
• Tests have been designed and validated to
assess students’ conceptions in this area
– Force Concept Inventory (FCI)
– Force and Motion Conceptual Evaluation (FMCE)
• 26-question multiple choice test
Pre-test scores
20
Mean Pre (/26)
15
10
Confidence on the pre-test
7
Average confidence on pre-test
6
5
4
3
2
Exposition
Please see: http://youtu.be/YF4PtjGiDcs
Gain in confidence
5
4
Mean
3
2
Average confidence on pre-test
Average confidence on post-test
Gain in confidence
5
4
Mean
3
2
Average confidence on pre-test
Average confidence on post-test
Interviews
• Having things like the car just sitting on the angle
with arrows pointing in each of the directions and
the size of the arrow changing showing how the
force was affecting it made it a lot more visual
and easier to understand.
• I thought it was simple to understand
– Yeah, definitely, very simple explanations. So it
makes physics look really simple (which I know is
not true!). And it was also very clear and concise
to the point, doesn’t go around in circles, really.
Interviews
• I had something similar – I liked the simplicity
of it. So the examples were something that
you come across all the time and it was really
easy to understand because you had the
visuals and the different colours and stuff.
And also the girl, she was very clear. She
didn’t have too much inflection either way so
she was very commanding, you wanted to
listen to her.
Key words
Key word/phrase
Frequency
Simple
7
Clear
7
Concise
4
Easy to understand
3
Confused
0
Hard to understand
0
By how much did scores improve?
• Pre-test average = 5.5 for Fundamentals
• Post-test =
A. 15-20
B. 10-15
C. 6-10
D. 5.5
What about test scores?
12
10
Mean
8
6
4
Pre
Post
What about test scores?
12
10
Mean
8
6
4
Pre
Post
WHAT WENT WRONG?
Misconceptions
• Preconceptions, Alternative Conceptions,
Naïve Conceptions etc.
• Direct vs. emergent
• Theory vs. knowledge in pieces
• Cueing
The spool
A. To the right
B. To the left
C. It depends
The spool
A. To the right
B. To the left
C. It depends
Perception and misconceptions
Please see: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YJbKieEC49M
Misconceptions
Misconceptions
cause
misperception
Misperception
limits attention
Misconceptions
Increase
confidence in
Misconceptions
cause
misperception
• Gravity is the same on the way down as it
was on the way up except for there was
the other force that was pushing the ball
up so that force is steadily decreased until
it’s reached its point of stoppage or
whatever at the origin and then it comes
down with the constant force of gravity
• It wasn’t that hard to pay
attention to, I think,
because I already knew
what she was talking
about. So I was listening,
but I wasn’t really paying
utmost attention.
• Newton’s first law I knew
already, I guess it was a bit
of revision from two years
ago.
Misperception
limits attention
Raise cognitive load
• Learning is an effortful and mindful process
and students should be encouraged to
construct their own knowledge and skills
through active processing, rather than being
passive listeners (Vosniadou et al. 2001)
• Can you make listeners active?
Dialogue
• Same correct physics concepts addressed
• Same definitions, examples, graphs, diagrams,
animations
• Additional alternative conceptions raised by
the ‘student’ and illustrated
• Discussion to resolve inconsistencies
Dialogue
Please see: http://youtu.be/VvyTKqxYQGc
Key Words
Key word/phrase
Expositions Dialogue
Simple
7
Clear
7
Concise
4
Easy to understand 3
Confused
0
Hard to understand 0
Key Words
Key word/phrase
Expositions Dialogue
Simple
7
0
Clear
7
0
Concise
4
0
Easy to understand 3
0
Confused
0
5
Hard to understand 0
1
Results
Pre
Post
12
10
Mean
8
6
4
Results
Pre
Post
12
10
Mean
8
6
4
Did they really change their ideas?
•
•
Why did you pick B [force from the cable = force of
gravity]? I just want you to talk us through your
thought processes.
So I had A and I thought it was right and then I went
down [the list] and the rest were wrong except B,
which I wasn’t sure about because I thought, hang on,
didn’t they say it was equal on the book even though
it’s moving – ‘cause the arrows were the same and it
was still moving. And I was thinking ‘that doesn’t make
sense,’ and then I had a look at it and I thought of F
equals MA and I thought it’s not accelerating because
it’s at a constant speed [points to question] and so if
force equals mass times acceleration and acceleration
equals zero then force equals zero – so they [the
forces] must be equal because they’re opposite vectors
– cancel each other out.
Clues to differences in learning
•
•
•
•
I liked that the guy was just as confused as I was –
to begin with. The fact that he was confused kind
of helped the whole explanation process, in me
[points to her head] to understand.
Saying all the common misconceptions, that was
really helpful so you know what it is but you also
know what it’s not. So you can know that if you
end up with that, you’re like ‘no, can’t be that.’ So
that helped a lot.
Did you have anything like that?
Yeah, the juggling ball one – the misconception is
there’s a force and that it’s slowly decreasing until
it reaches the top and then it disappears or
whatever. That was the misconception I think.
Mental effort during instruction
• I liked that it was asking me questions, so I
had to actually think about it rather than just
telling me stuff, because then it had more
relevance to me... Also, by then, asking those
questions I didn't feel as stupid as I did
beforehand.
ean mental effort during instruction (/9)
Mental effort during instruction
7
6
5
4
3
Higher knowledge groups
Course
5
Mean Gain
4
3
2
Fundamentals
Regular
Advanced
Higher knowledge groups
Course
5
Mean Gain
4
3
2
Fundamentals
Regular
Advanced
Implications
F = ma
= ma
Push = (weight)(speed)
Use these conceptions
Implications
• Flipped Classroom: Text and/or video should be
misconception-based
• Teach to the misconceptions
• Drive the class towards them
• Force students to assess their perception
• Scaffolding – worked examples, completion
problems, paired problems
• Only remove scaffolding when students become
proficient
• Use existing conceptions
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an element of truth