CONCEPTUAL CHANGE

Conceptual change to re-conceptualize deeply rooted misconceptions that interfere with the learning, people spend considerable time and effort constructing a view of physical world through experiences and observations, and they may cling tenaciously to those views-however much they conflict with scientific concepts- because they help them explain phenomena and make predictions about the world(e.g., why a rock falls faster than a leaf)

One instructional strategy termed “bridging” has been successful in helping students overcome persistent misconception. The bridging strategy attempts to bridge from students correct beliefs(called anchoring conceptions) to their misconceptions through a series of intermediate analogous situations. Starting with the anchoring intuition that a spring exerts an upward force on the book resting on it, the student might be asked if a book resting on the middle of a long “spring” board.

The fact that the bent board exert upward force on the book the instructor may ask a students to place her hand on top of a vertical spring and push down and to place her hand on the middle of the spring board and push down, She would then be asked if she experienced an upward force that resisted her push in both cases. Through the type of dynamic probing of students beliefs and by helping them come up with ways to resolve conflicting views, students can be guided into constructing a coherent view is applicable across a wide range of contexts.