Student Misconceptions
Student Learning in the Metros study 2006 (SLIMS 2006) , jointly conducted by EI and Wipro, received an overwhelming response from educationists, experts, schools and parents. The November 27, 2006 issue of the India Today Magazine carried a cover story based on the findings of this research study.
The study suggested that students across classes answer rote-based or procedural questions relatively well but fail to answer unfamiliar question types correctly. Students also tend to perform poorly on questions that require practical competencies. The above show that in many cases, they are not learning with understanding.
To shed further light on the student misconceptions and EI and WATIS are producing a Video Series on Student Misconceptions. We have interviewed around 2500 students across the five metro cities.
Many interesting patterns underlying student learning surfaced when the data of SLIMS 2006 were analysed. Similar patterns have been identified even through ASSET. One of many such interesting patterns relates to misconceptions, where the number of students giving the most common wrong answer far exceeds the number of students giving the correct answer. In such cases, it is likely, though not strictly necessary, that the wrong answer emerges from a false preconception, or a common misconception. However data and numbers are just indicators and they tell us nothing about what goes on in student’s minds while they select the wrong options. To know and understand the various sources of these false preconceptions or wrong notions, its important that we talk to them and understand the various ideas they have about the question and topic being asked. It is only through such interactions with them that we can know the thought process that operates in their mind.
See more videos on misconception in government school children
The “Ensuring Children Learn Programme”, is a joint initiative between Government of Andhra Pradesh and Naandi foundation to improve quality of education in government primary and elementary schools in the state of Andhra Pradesh. Educational Initiatives is partnering with Naandi for the foundations initiatives in government schools of Hyderabad (a few mandals mainly covering the old city area), for understanding and assessing the quality of learning. Student Interviews and video recordings are part of the efforts to track student Misconceptions and common errors in Maths and Language and train teachers to talk/interact with children and understand what children are learning and what they are finding difficult understand and learn and probe to find answers; collect data on what children are actually learning; develop material that can be used to train teachers in the future. As a part of this, around 200 students studying in government schools in classes 3, 4 and 5 were interviewed based on misconceptions and common errors identified from the pattern of answers in test data. Student interviews in a classroom, where students are probed (without giving away the answer) for how they think about the concepts is a powerful tool to get an understanding of how students think. The video recording of such interviews and sharing the videos with other teachers will enable many more teachers to understand misconceptions in students and hence take corrective action.