User:HarrisharmonQ

Note to the Editors: I will retract my previous submission and break it into smaller parts that are more richly referenced, as in the example below. Please confirm if this is the style you prefer. Thanks.

Kathleen Fisher

Preconceptions or Prior Knowledge

“Children develop ideas about natural phenomena before they are taught science in school. In some instances these ideas are in keeping with the science [that] is taught. In many cases, however, there are significant differences between children's notions and school science” (1, p.1). The terms ‘prior knowledge’ and ‘preconceptions’ refer to the various ideas that students hold when they walk into a science class. These understandings were acquired earlier in the students' lives, as a consequence of their trying try to make sense of their world. In many cases, students are quite attached to their ideas and reluctant to give them up, which presents a challenge for the teacher. Literally thousands of prevalent ‘alternative frameworks’ for thinking about scientific ideas have been identified and examined in students around the world (e.g., 2-5). These alternative conceptions “often parallel explanations of natural phenomena offered by previous generations of scientists and philosophers” (6, p.57), but have since been found to be incorrect. The new science of learning summarized by a committee created by the National Research Council (7) focuses on ways of helping students construct a bridge from their prior knowledge (8-10) to a more accurate understanding of events being studied.

References (1) Driver, R., Squires, A., Rushworth, P. & Wood-Robinson, V. (1994). Making sense of secondary science: Research into children’s ideas, New York, Routledge. (2) Pfundt, H. & Duit, R. (1988). Bibliography: Students' alternative frameworks and science education, Second Edition. Institut fur die Padagogik der Naturwissenschaften (Institute for Science Education), an der Universitat Kiel, Olshausenstrasse 62, D-2300 Kiel 1, Federal Republic of Germany. (3) Pfundt, H. & Duit, R. (1988). Bibliography: Students' alternative frameworks and sciencePfundt, H. & Duit, R. (1991). Bibliography: Students' alternative frameworks and science education, Third Edition. Institut fur die Padagogik der Naturwissenschaften (Institute for Science Education), an der Universitat Kiel, Olshausenstrasse 62, D-2300 Kiel 1, Federal Republic of Germany. (4) Pfundt, H. & Duit, R. (1988). Bibliography: Students' alternative frameworks and sciencePfundt, H. & Duit, R. (1994). Bibliography: Students' alternative frameworks and science education, Fourth Edition. Institut fur die Padagogik der Naturwissenschaften (Institute for Science Education), an der Universitat Kiel, Olshausenstrasse 62, D-2300 Kiel 1, Federal Republic of Germany. (5) Pfundt, H. & Duit, R. (1988). Bibliography: Students' alternative frameworks and sciencePfundt, Helga & Duit, Reinders. (1985). Bibliography: Students' alternative frameworks and science education. First Edition. Institut fur die Padagogik der Naturwissenschaften (Institute for Science Education), an der Universitat Kiel, Olshausenstrasse 62, D-2300 Kiel 1, Federal Republic of Germany. (6) Fisher, K.M. and Moody, D.E., “Student misconceptions in biology”, Chapter 4, in Fisher, K.M., Wandersee, J.H., and Moody, D.E. (2000). Mapping Biology Knowledge, Kluwer Academic Publishers. (7) Bransford, J. D., Brown, A. L. & Cocking, R. R., Eds.. (2000). How People Learn: Brain, Mind, Experience, and School. Washington, DC: National Academy Press. (8) Piaget, J. (1978). Success and understanding. Cambridge, MA. Harvard University Press. (9) Vygotsky, L. S. (1978). (Edited by Cole, M., John-Steiner, V., Scriber, S., and Souberman, E.) Mind in society: The development of higher psychological processes. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. (10) Vygotsky, L. S. (1986). Thought and language. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.