Finding, Compiling, and Using Secondary Biology Misconceptions: An Action Research Project

• In Event: 34.094 - Fairmont Royal York Roundtable Session Six
  In Roundtable Session: 34.094-2 - Teaching and Instruction: Child-Teacher Interactions, Explicit Instruction, and Subject Matter Innovations

Abstract

Of all ideas students come to a science classroom with, some do not match those of the scientific community and can lead to misunderstandings. We will call these ideas misconceptions. Contemporary education literature views misconceptions as resources for learning. As such, we employed an action research methodology and compiled a reference guide of misconceptions to more effectively plan our biology courses. Using the University of Toronto’s National Biology Competition, we identified 130 misconceptions from a national sample (111,238 students, 1,181 questions) over many years (1995-2017). We will present 21 of these misconceptions, highlighting their ability to inform pedagogy and commenting on the persistent nature of some throughout our sample.

Authors

• Travis T Fuchs, The University of British Columbia

• Mike Arsenault, Lakefield College School