Conclusions and Implications
Goal: To develop TRUE understanding
When considering the links and connections between the various components of my inquiry—errors/misconceptions, responding, and anticipating, I came to the realization that all of these work in conjunction with each other to help students gain true understanding—one that is deep, accurate, and long-lasting. For me, learning is the process of gaining this understanding. Through this inquiry, I better understood a teacher’s role in promoting learning and how misconceptions function in the learning process for students.
I am in agreement with Tomlinson and McTighe (2006) that “Learning happens within students, not to them. Learning is a process of making meaning that happens one student at a time” (p. 22). When my students were trying to make meaning of the material, they sometimes made mistakes and had misconceptions. Misconceptions are evidence of learning with students applying their prior knowledge and backgrounds to understand new situations. Utilizing these connections that students make to what they already know seems to be an effective instructional strategy for student understanding to be deeper and longer-lasting because it is grounded and linked to prior knowledge and familiar contexts.
As a teacher, I am responsible for acknowledging and responding to my students’ misconceptions in ways that value mistakes as a necessary part of learning and promote gaining understanding through reasoning, not memorization. Being prepared to respond well is where the anticipation aspect enters.
Articulating the "WHY"
This aim for conceptual understanding through responding and anticipating student misconceptions challenged both my students and me as a teacher. One approach is to dismiss misconceptions as incorrect and provide algorithms for students to memorize. The approach that I strive for is to acknowledge these misconceptions and utilize them by adapting my instruction to guide my students to accurate understanding. Below are examples of successful and unsuccessful student work from the Equation vs. Inequalities Project also mentioned on the “Responding” page. The successful student had not just memorized the information but was able to verbally explain with solid reasoning when and when not to shade a graph. When a student possesses the “how” and the “why” in addition to the “what,” they are learners who are empowered to apply their deep knowledge to new situations.
Realizations about Learning and Understanding
Throughout my student teaching and this inquiry, I have gained a better understanding of how understanding develops, particularly through making mistakes. I think that I still get a bit uncomfortable and am unsure of what to do when my students make errors and have misconceptions, but I am pushing myself to express them as valuable and integral parts of learning. Mistake suggest a process of sense-making, and I see it as my duty as a teacher to guide, not lead, my students to true understanding that is deep, accurate, and long-lasting. In this light, my students’ understanding should come from learning from their mistakes, not memorizing the correct content or algorithm.
The meaning of learning has changed for me. It is not just knowing how to do something but also possessing a conceptual understanding of why it works. The act of learning involves making mistakes, having misconceptions, and working from these to gain an accurate understanding. Reaching this deep level of understanding may take more time, but it will most likely result in longer-lasting understanding.
Future Teaching Practice
Since misconceptions and anticipating and responding to them can all work in conjunction with each other to help students develop true understanding, I would like to continuously improve on anticipating and responding to my students’ misconceptions. From my inquiry, I have discovered the importance of identifying both the misconceptions themselves and the possible causes of them (i.e. the reasoning and logic behind them). Better understanding how students are making sense of the material gives me a better idea of where to work from in my teaching.
I would also like to aim to more actively and fully value and utilize student mistakes in my teaching. Anticipating and responding effectively involve much preparation work and attention to maintaining student agency but has much potential benefits for student learning. Structuring future lessons around student reactions is responsive teaching that works to meet the needs of those specific students. I want to empower my students to not only know the “what” content but also the “why” and “how” understandings, and anticipating and responding are two powerful tools that I can employ to help my students achieve this.