After determining the science content domain of the teacher assessment, teacher misconceptions were identified for each of the sub-ideas listed in the content clarifications in two ways: (1) through a literature review of misconceptions, and (2) through open-ended tasks about the specific science content. Although there is a substantial amount of literature on student misconceptions for some science content areas, literature on teacher misconceptions was sparse. We administered open-ended tasks to teachers and found that often, teachers had the same misconceptions as students.
Approximately 100 teachers were asked to respond to open-ended question about the teaching of the science content area targeted. A sample item is shown below.
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A teacher poses the following question to her students: ”In the winter, some trees lose all their leaves. How do they get the energy they need to survive?“ One student responds, ”The tree needs its leaves to make energy from sunlight, so it must get the energy another way. I think it gets the energy by breaking down what it brings in from the soil through its roots.“ What aspects of this student’s response, if any, are correct? What aspects of this student’s response, if any, are incorrect? |
A collection of open-ended items about each content area, including the open-ended items used to identify teacher misconceptions, can be found in Released Open-Ended Teacher Items.
More information about eliciting student thinking, which has much in common with eliciting teacher thinking, can be found in the Eliciting Student Thinking Training.