1. What do YOU think? I think the seeds will get lighter as they grow
I think the seeds will stay the same weight
I think the seeds will get heavier as they grow
What do YOU think?

2. What do YOU think? I think the eggs will stay the same weight
The eggs will get heavier as the chicks innside the eggs grow
The eggs will get lighter as the chicks grow
What do YOU think?

3. COMPARING THE EGGS AND THE SEEDS
Main similarities
Main differences
The eggs
The seeds

4. Understanding is DEEPER knowledge!
Knowing is associated with facts, memorization, and often superficial knowledge.
Knowing facts, knowing how to operate a machine …
Understanding is DEEPER knowledge!
Understanding implies a more complex, multidimensional integration of information into a learner’s own conceptual framework.

5. Teaching for understanding
Conceptual change
MOVING FROM KNOWING FACTS TOWARD
DEEP UNDERSTANDING THROUGH
CONCEPTUAL CHANGE
Conceptual
Changel
Knowing
Understanding

6. Alternative conceptions
New knowledge presented in biology lessons «meets» prior knowledge. This may result inn:
New knowledge and prior knowledge are not in conflict. New knowledge may be constructed on the foundations of prior knowledge.
New knowledge and prior knowledge are not alligned. Prior knowledge (alternative conceptions) must be restructured (*) before new knowledge can be constructed

7. Prior knowledge
Students and teachers and instructors together must assess prior knowledge
Find out what prior knowledge is “correct” and should form a good basis for further learning
Find out what prior knowledge is based on misunderstandings or incomplete understandings

8. How can we assess learners’ prior knowledge?
Dialogue
Tests/quizes
Concept maps
Drawings
Games
Graphic organisers
Concept Cartoons
Experiments
True-false statements
Naylor, S. & Keogh, B. (2012). Concept Cartoons: What have we learnt? Paper presented at the Fibonacci Project European Conference, Inquiry-based science and mathematics education: bridging the gap between education research and practice. Leicester, UK, April 2012

9. Concept map

10. Concept map

11. Can you draw a set of pictures that show what types of gasses a plant takes inn and gives out, and how much, during different times of the day?
DAWN
CO2 O2
MIDNIGHT
EVENING
NOON

13. Graphic organiser Circulatory System Parts of the system
What would happen to the system if this part was missing?
What is the function of this part of the system?
Heart
Blood would not circulate the body
Arteries
Carry blood back to the heart
Capillaries
Blood
Valves
Lymph vessels

14. COMPARING THE EGGS AND THE SEEDS
Graphic organiser
COMPARING THE EGGS AND THE SEEDS
Main similarities
Main differences
The eggs
The seeds

15. CONCEPT CARTOONS
What do YOU think?

16. The word «misconception» has been (mis)used widely.
Erroneous beliefs
Older elephants that are near death do not leave their herd and instinctively direct themselves toward a specific location known as an elephants' graveyard to die.[
Ostriches do not stick their heads in the sand to hide from enemies

17. As biology teachers we should be aware, in particular, of the misconceptions that may form an obstacle for learning

18. As biology teachers we should be aware, in particular, of the misconceptions that may form an obstacle for learning
Examples:
Cells are 2D
As wood burns, only ash remains, there is nothing more
Plants do photosynthesis, animals/humans do respiration
Air has no weight, air has negative weight
Infections are caused by bacteria

19. Children’s misconceptions may be associated with everyday reasoning («commonsense» ways of explaining phenomena
Driver, R., Asoko, H., Leach, J. Mortimer, E. & Scott P. (1994). Constructing Scientific Knowledge in the Classroom. Educational Researcher, 23 (7), 5-12

20. Children’s misconceptions may be associated with everyday reasoning («commonsense» ways of explaining phenomena
Everyday reasoning
Scientific reasoning
Tends to be tacit or without explicit rules
Expilicit formulation of theories that can be communicated and inspected in the light of evidence
Ideas are judged in terms of being useful for special purposes or in specific situations
Has a purpose of constructing a general and coherent picture of the world

21. Border Crossing Cross-Cultural Science Education
…. how students move between their everyday life-world and the world of school science
…. how students deal with cognitive conflicts between those two worlds
Aikenhead & Jegede (1999). Cross-Cultural Science Education: A Cognitive Explanation of a Cultural Phenomenon. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 36 (3), 269–287
Aikenhead, G. (1996). Science education: Border crossing into the subculture of science. Studies in Science Education, 27, 1-52