The Role of Pre-Assessment

The Role of Pre-Assessment 

Why is it important to learn about student misconception?

• It is important to learn about student misconception because as teachers, it is our job to recognize these misconceptions and teach children the truth. Children cannot advance in their academic life if the foundation of their knowledge is full of misconceptions and untrue information.
• When we use pre-assessment, we know what we need to focus on; what the students don't know and what they need to know. This is information that we must use to guide our lessons. Our lessons should always be providing children with new information that is true. As teachers, it is our job to provide students with the most useful and factual information we possibly can.
• It is harder to teach when students have misconception than when they have no knowledge. This is because a student with a misconception already has been taught something previously. They have an idea or concept established in their mind that is false. To reteach a student with a pre-existing misunderstanding, we must first make sure the students know they have a misconception. We need to focus on this student's foundation of knowledge and reteach them the correct concepts and ideas. It is hard for children to relearn something or to be told that something they believed was true is actually untrue. When students have no knowledge, they are more accepting of information. They do not need to erase an idea they previously had, they just need to memorize new information. Learning something new is easier for students than fixing a misconception. 

In our groups, Dr. Smirnova had us consider various topics and misconceptions we were taught about them. My group had to discuss misconceptions about volcanoes, the solar system, and the zoo. Aside from discussing our misconceptions, Dr. Smirnova provided us with a website that lists common misconceptions that students in New York State have. This activity was very revealing and helpful. I did not realize how much information my peers and I grew up believing was true is actually misconception. Based on these misconceptions, we made lesson objectives that we could use in a classroom to challenge these misconceptions.