In order to change preconceptions to be consistent with scientifically accepted concepts, learners must be provided with experiences that can aid student comprehension, rather than simply being given new factual explanations. ( 2015) found that misconceptions held with high confidence were most effectively corrected by a combination of refutation text and correct text. Tsai and Chang ( 2005) found that introducing discrepant and critical events to generate dissatisfaction with misconceptions was effective in promoting learning. Working with preservice teachers, Frede ( 2008) designed a refutation approach to conceptual change and found that teachers improved significantly when they had to refute misconceptions in small-group laboratory activities. He used an analogy to home construction: teachers may think of students as constructing new houses and may see their own role as the supplier of raw materials and tools, whereas in fact students are remodeling their existing mental homes and will construct new walls only when convinced of the need to tear down old ones (see also Nussbaum and Sharoni-Dagan 1983). A college student, he argued, is not a tabula rasa (cf Pinker 2003), but rather a carrier of misconceptions that are deeply rooted since early childhood.
In an associated presentation, Wandersee ( 1989) asserted that students must be challenged to deconstruct misconceptions before they can construct valid mental models. Interviewees included students who had taken physics and astronomy courses at Harvard, one of the world’s top-ranked universities. Seasonal change was most commonly ascribed to large variations in Earth’s distance from the Sun (as also found by Trumper 2000 and numerous other studies). When interviewed at a commencement ceremony, 21 of 23 Harvard students, alumni, and faculty could not correctly explain the phases of the Moon nor the causes of seasons. 1989) dramatically showed how pervasive and persistent are people’s – even highly educated people’s – misconceptions regarding basic concepts in planetary science. The seminal study entitled A Private Universe (Schneps et al. Sadler 1998 Bailey and Slater 2003 Lindgren 2003 Danaia and McKinnon 2007, Kücüközer 2007). There is a substantial body of discipline-based education research demonstrating the depth and breadth of astronomy misconceptions that are held by students, their teachers, and the general public (e.g. After using Google Earth, students are helped to segue to a heliocentric view. Mean correct answers rose from 4.7/10 to 6/10, giving a paired t-test value of 0.21. A classroom test of 27 undergraduates in a public research university showed that 15 improved their test scores after the Google Earth-based laboratory class, whereas 5 disimproved. We have therefore developed a learning resource using Google Earth, a virtual globe with other useful, weather- and climate-related visualizations. Studies show that many teachers share their students’ misconceptions, and even when they understand basic concepts, teachers may fail to appreciate the range of factors contributing to seasonal change, or their relative importance. Textbook explanations that omit multiple factors influencing seasons, that do not mesh with students’ experiences, or that are erroneous, hinder scientifically valid reasoning. Misconceptions may be reinforced by textbook illustrations that exaggerate eccentricity or show an inclined view of Earth’s near-circular orbit. However, misconceptions regarding reasons for the seasons abound amongst students, teachers, and the public, many of whom believe that seasonality is caused by large variations in Earth’s distance from the Sun. Public understanding of climate and climate change is of broad societal importance.