Yang, D., & Senocak, I. (2013, June), The Search for Strategies to Prevent Persistent Misconceptions  Paper presented at 2013 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Atlanta, Georgia. 10.18260/1-2--22616

\bibitem{asee_peer_22616}
  Yang, D., \& Senocak, I. (2013, June), \emph{The Search for Strategies to Prevent Persistent Misconceptions}
  Paper presented at 2013 ASEE Annual Conference \& Exposition, Atlanta, Georgia.
  10.18260/1-2--22616

Dazhi Yang and Inanc Senocak.  "The Search for Strategies to Prevent Persistent Misconceptions".  2013 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Atlanta, Georgia, 2013, June.  ASEE Conferences, 2013.  https://peer.asee.org/22616 Internet.  06 Jul, 2024

\bibitem{asee_peer_22616}
  Dazhi Yang and Inanc Senocak.
  "The Search for Strategies to Prevent Persistent Misconceptions".
  \emph{2013 ASEE Annual Conference \& Exposition, Atlanta, Georgia, 2013, June}.
  ASEE Conferences, 2013.
  https://peer.asee.org/22616 Internet.  06 Jul, 2024

@INPROCEEDINGS{asee_peer_22616
author = "Dazhi Yang and Inanc Senocak"
title = "The Search for Strategies to Prevent Persistent Misconceptions"
booktitle = "2013 ASEE Annual Conference \& Exposition"
year = "2013"
month = "June"
address = "Atlanta, Georgia"
publisher = "ASEE Conferences"
note = {https://peer.asee.org/22616}
number = {10.18260/1-2--22616}
}

TY  - CPAPER
AB  -                     The Search for Strategies to Prevent Persistent MisconceptionsResearch shows that it may be too late to correct and repair misconceptions of fundamental scienceand engineering concepts by the time students reach core engineering courses. Therefore, we need tofocus on preventing such misconceptions. Although some misconceptions were formed long beforecollege, by focusing on eliminating and teaching to prevent misconceptions earlier in the collegeexperience we have more and better opportunities to eliminate them.This paper reports the Stage One outcomes of a larger study: A synergistic approach to prevent persistentmisconceptions with first-year engineering students. The paper addresses the following two aspects: (1)misconception repair strategies have had weak results, and (2) proposing a synergistic approach thatfocuses on preventing/eliminating misconceptions from forming.From the review of previous studies on student misconceptions of science and engineering concepts andconceptual change, we found most strategies for treating student misconceptions focus on repairing andchanging misconceptions when they are already formed or identified. Among these remedy strategies,four strategies are most frequently adopted and tested: (1) using conceptual conflict to confront andcontradict misconceptions, (2) using computer simulations to promote conceptual changes, (3) inquiry-based activities (such as problem-based learning) to promote conceptual changes, and (4) presenting fourconditions of the Conceptual Change Model to promote conceptual changes. Another newly emergedstrategy called schema training approach that trains students on two different scientific processes(emergent and sequential processes) to facilitate them in forming new mental representations of the twoprocesses. This approach assumes that possessing mental representations of emergent and sequentialprocesses will facilitate subsequent learning of difficult concepts and promote conceptual changes. Theschema training approach seems to be promising for repairing misconceptions in different subjects andacross student levels (K-12 and college). However, it works better with middle school students thancollege students.While our review of existing research on repairing misconceptions and promoting conceptual changesfound some strategies effective, to date there is no single strategy that could successfully repair allmisconceptions. If efforts on repairing misconceptions did not achieve intended goals, new approaches toprevent them seem to be logical and the most economic way to pursue. If we can prevent students fromforming misconceptions of core concepts in the first place, we can not only help students better learnsciences and engineering, improve their chances of pursuing degrees and careers in science andengineering, but also save resources devoted to repairing misconceptions later on.Based on outcomes of previous studies, we propose a synergistic approach that utilizes effectiveinstructional design and the development of student mental representations of fundamental yet difficultconcepts with first-year engineering students before they take relevant coursework. This approachconsists of (1) utilizing interactive learning strategies enhanced by educational technology, (2) trainingstudents on mental representations of scientific processes (SPs) (domain-general training), and mostimportantly (3) explaining difficult concepts in the language of SPs (domain-specific) in addition to thedomain-general training on SPs. This strategy will provide a concrete context for students makinglearning new difficult concepts easier as well as shortening the time for forming correct conceptualunderstanding, harnessing the synergistic effect of both domain-general and domain-specific training. Thelast strategy was inspired by a recent study in which the students performed statistically different (better)on the assessment test when diffusion concepts were simply referred to as emergent process.We believe that explaining difficult concepts in the language of SPs in addition to the domain-generaltraining of SPs will be the most effective instructional method to provide a strong, appropriate foundationof conceptual understanding to prevent first-year engineering students from forming stubbornmisconceptions. Stage Two of the large study will examine this synergistic approach using anexperimental design study and a follow-up study with first-year engineering students.
AU  - Dazhi Yang
AU  - Inanc Senocak
CY  - Atlanta, Georgia
DA  - 2013/06/23
PB  - ASEE Conferences
TI  - The Search for Strategies to Prevent Persistent Misconceptions
UR  - https://peer.asee.org/22616
DO  - 10.18260/1-2--22616
ER  -