Erwin, T.

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Journal 1
By
Tyler Erwin
Teaching Science in Middle and Secondary School
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September 5, 2016

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The journal that I decided to review for my first entry discusses the importance of not
devaluing the misconceptions that our students might bring into the classroom when we begin
instruction. After reading this journal, I can relate and understand the importance of not seeing a
student's misconception about a given topic as a thing that needs to be "stamped out" (Campbell,
Schwarz, & Windschitl, 2016) and replaced by the correct information but needs to be used to
help the students learn.
The journal makes the argument that these misconceptions have the potential to be more
of a learning experience for some students than simply a correction of incorrect information.
This can be done by simply having the student explain why or how that their misconception fits
into or explains the topic being discussed. This is important because it can help begin to bridge
the gap between what the student already believes and what is correct. There are several issues
that can arise from this method, the first of which the students are feeling that their idea is or the
what they think is being discredited by their teacher. The second issue that might arise is if many
of the students all have wildly different misconceptions that differ from what is correct as well as
from each other. I feel the best way to approach each of these issues is to spend time discussing
the misconceptions with the students so that they do not feel that they are being discredited as
well as underappreciated. This can be done when first introducing a new unit as a prompt
question such as What do you already know about this topic? Or How do you think this works
this process/item works?.
Overall I feel that this journal is a great resource and helps provide a different
perspective on what educators perceive as wrong answers and helps provide ideas to help turn
them into teachable moments. The journal also really helped incorporate the use of the Next

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Generation Science Standards (NGSS) into the proposed scenarios that the author had provided
in Figures 2 and 3 of the journal.

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References
Campbell, T., Schwarz, C. V., & Windschitl, M. (2016). What we call misconceptions may be
necessary stepping-stones toward making sense of the world. The Science Teacher, 83(3),
6974.