Context-based learning for Inhibition of alternative conceptions: the next step forward in science education

Abstract

The scientific literacy level of the whole population has long been focusing the researchers’ attention because of its direct impact on many aspects of our lives. As a matter of fact, studies in cognition have both been inspired by educational issues as well as by misconceptions of scientific ideas often based on irrational beliefs, old theories, unscientific reasoning, or unassimilated conceptual instruction. As a result, individual conceptions are now accurately described in many scientific fields, which has led to improvements in science teaching and learning. However, the community (scientists, academics, high school and primary school teachers, and educators) has not yet succeeded in solving all the issues, so some pre-existing misconceptions still persist in the population. In this paper, we argue that cognition studies must now focus on the origin of individuals’ conceptions and on their modes of acquisition and propagation. The goal is to provide educational tools for acting upstream, during early scientific instruction, before the very acquisition of scientific conceptions.

How Do Executive Functions Influence Children’s Reasoning About Counterintuitive Concepts in Mathematics and Science?

“…Cognitive control of thought and behaviour is then required to overcome this conflict and inhibit interference from persistent misconceptions (Carey, 2000 ; Dunbar et al, 2007 ). As a consequence, in science and mathematics education, children often need to inhibit their pre-existing, intuitive beliefs, or their immediate perceptions, in order to correctly reason about academic concepts (Houde et al, 2000 ; Mareschal, 2016 ; Renouard & Mazabraud, 2018 ; Vosniadou et al, 2018 ). Drawing on the example used above, in science, children need to inhibit their intuitive reasoning that larger organisms have larger cells than smaller organisms, if they are to correctly learn that in fact larger organisms have more cells.…”