Kappan's editor talks with Tracey Tokuhama-Espinosa, a leader in the international movement to translate findings from neuroscience into usable knowledge for educators. Topics include neuromyths (common, but erroneous, beliefs about how the brain works), the current scientific consensus about how people learn, and the contributions that the…

This narrative essay describes a basic writing instructor's engagement with student confusion in a hybrid Accelerated Learning Program (ALP) course. The story examines the ways confusion can mark sites of engagement for students and teachers and how ALP courses, in particular, might mediate effective (and ineffective) forms of confusion.

The existence, preponderance, and stability of misconceptions related to evolution continue as foci of research in science education. In their 2006 study, Geraedts and Boersma question the existence of stable Lamarckian misconceptions in students, challenging the utility of Conceptual Change theory in addressing any such misconceptions. To support…

Pre-service teachers face many challenges as they learn to teach in ways that are different from their own educational experiences. Pre-service teachers often enter teacher education courses with pre-conceptions about teaching and learning that may or may not be consistent with contemporary learning theory. To build on preservice teachers' prior…

Many students of chemistry demonstrate alternative conceptions about some fundamental aspects of chemistry. Suggests that research evidence provides strong support for this view. Contains 45 references. (DDR)

Examines how children's misconceptions regarding scientific phenomena change over time through instruction and other mechanisms. Asserts that Piagetian and Vygotskian theories offer insights into children's misconceptions related to how they are formed and how they are influenced by personal experience and social factors, and that these theories…

Argues that, for a misconception to be abandoned, the learner must come to see it as unsatisfactory. The new conception must be intelligible, plausible, and fruitful. Suggests that students should have an active cognitive involvement in the process. Contains 16 references. (DDR)

Discusses how biologists use evolutionary theory and provides examples of how evolutionary biologists test hypotheses on specific modes of selection and evolution. Presents an example of the successful predictive power of one evolutionary hypothesis. Contains 38 references. (DDR)

Examines the role of social interaction as a facilitator of learning in general and conceptual change in particular. Three conditions are proposed as necessary for social interaction to facilitate knowledge construction--horizontal information, comparable domain knowledge, and availability of cognitive tools. Suggests that these conditions assure…

Argues that children learn science more effectively when teachers begin with the ideas they already hold. Children can arrive at scientific understanding through careful teaching that includes discussion activities, practical investigations, or secondary sources. Getting children to discuss their ideas challenges their thinking and encourages them…