ALTERNATIVE CONCEPTIONS

The term alternative conceptions refers to

 ideas that people have which are inconsistent with scientifically acceptable ideas. The
term 'misconception' is also sometimes used. (Terms such as alternative conception and
misconception are sometimes used synonymously, but some authors given them different
meanings.
 Beliefs that students have that are contrary or inconsistent to the prevailing scientific
concepts
 beliefs that contradict the current state of scientific evidence.
 are incorrect understandings OF SCIENTIFIC IDEAS that students have incorporated into
their prior knowledge

List the alternative conceptions in Physics and

Gravitational potential energy depends only on the height of the object.

‘Magnet attract all metals ’

The red pole of a magnet is a south pole and the blue one is a north pole

Like charges repel while unlike charges attract as a property of a magnet etc

 Alternative conceptions have their origin (source) as

o Background based
o Language based
o Teaching approaches
o Literature _ text books
o teachers

Explain how the listed below are the sources of alternative

conception,

Background based- culture, religion,

indigenous knowledge systems

Language based

Teaching approaches

Teaching strategies e.g. analogies

Literature – textbooks

teacher

How do we help students overcome their misconceptions? long term?

ECIRR is one of the strategies which a teacher can implement to address the alternative
misconception which our learners are likely to develop from the text extract in fig 3.2. above

ECIRR stands for [Elicit, Confront, Identify, Resolve and Reinforce]

THE CURRENT MODEL WORKS IN A FIVE STAGES TO RECTIFY THE

MISCONCEPTION.

 ELICIT: In the first stage of ‘elicit’, the teacher evokes/stir up and brings out the
alternative concepts among students through activities and discussions. This stage
enables the teacher to know that student has a misconception through diagnostic probes
and getting diagnostics signs through an odd, unexpected or a wrong answer confirming
the possible presence of a misconception. (2)
 CONFRONT: What to do when one finds a misconception? The answer is to ‘confront’,
which is the second stage. This helps teachers to address and deal with the faulty mental
model through demonstrations, implications, questions and discussion (2)
 IDENTIFY: After evoking and confronting alternative concepts, teachers should then
‘identify’ what is the underlying conceptual difficulty and in what way is the students’
mental model faulty (what has led to this misconception (2)
 RESOLVE: ‘resolve’ involves healing of the faulty mental model, in which teachers
replace alternative concepts and allow students to actively resolve/determine
discrepancies/INCONSISTENCIES by themselves.

 REINFORCE: The teacher and learners must REINFORCE/strengthen the pathway that
leads to the new understanding and extinguish or at least suppress the pathway that leads
to the old

In the first stage of ‘elicit’, the teacher evokes and brings out the alternative
concepts among students through activities and discussions. This stage enables the
teacher to know that student has a misconception through diagnostic probes and
getting diagnostics signs through an odd, unexpected or a wrong answer
confirming the possible presence of a misconception.

What to do when one finds a misconception? The answer is to ‘confront’, which

is the second stage. This helps teachers to address and deal with the faulty mental
model through demonstrations, implications, questions and discussions. They place
the students in a state of cognitive conflict by disagreeing to their predictions and
statements. Identify

After evoking and confronting alternative concepts, teachers should then

‘identify’ what is the underlying conceptual difficulty and in what way is the
students’ mental model faulty. This is the third stage in this model.

The Fourth stage, ‘resolve’ involves healing of the faulty mental model, in which
teachers replace alternative concepts and allow students to actively
resolve/DETERMINE discrepancy by themselves. The replacement can be
fostered through modeling activities using graphs, diagrams that systematically
engage students in developing models and providing their own explanations for
basic phenomena, or simply through questions, experiments, or hypothetical cases.
In order to recheck for alternative concepts, students are re-evaluated during this
stage by posing conceptual questions.

The final stage is the ‘reinforcement’ which is the most important stage to
complete this model. . To reinforce is to strengthen the pathway that leads to the
new understanding and suppress the pathway that leads to the old understanding.
Working all the way from revealing of the misconceptions until the stage of
healing, incorrect concepts are not erased completely. It is the reinforcement that
achieves it. Therefore, retrieval pathways for the correct concepts or learning are to
be reinforced over time and again and under varying conditions.