Chapter 7 Learning Log

What? Students are always adding to and modifying their understanding of the physical and social world they live in. Their knowledge is that of their own because they must individually create their own views of the physical and social phenomena. Their knowledge and beliefs are also influenced b y their environment and experiences. Every student constructs their own unique view of the ideas and events they encounter in and out of the classroom. Their views may be both good and bad. They can be good because their understandings are equally legitimate. However, they may interfere with growing socially. It is our job as teachers to make sure they interpret the world around them in ways that will benefit them.
So what? It is important to know this information because teachers need to know that there are common misconceptions that the students have due to their age. There are many ways of promoting conceptual change: identify existing misconceptions before instruction begins, look for and then build on kernels of truth in students' existing understandings, convince students that their existing beliefs need revision, motivate students to learn correct explanations, and monitor what students say and write for persistent misconceptions. It is important to know these ways of promoting change because the students need to be corrected when they have misconceptions.
Now what? In the classroom I will know what to teach and in what way because of the misconceptions the students have. They have their schema, which we learn about in a lot of my classes this semester, and I will be able to help my students use their schema to altar it with the correct information. If I overlook what my students know prior to me teaching the units, their schema would stay the same and they wouldn't learn anything because they would be building off of the wrong information while they are learning. The best way to do this is by scaffolding and walking the students through this step by step so they aren't confused when the teacher tells them that what they've thought all along was wrong, and what's right is completely different than that they thought.