Student misconceptions

Interesting article about how teacher awareness of student misconceptions, along with teacher subject area knowledge, affects student achievement.

I was particularly struck by this:

For the strong misconception items, the low-achieving students learned very little, whatever the teacher knowledge. For high-achieving students, knowledge mattered, and they were most likely to learn when their teacher had both subject-matter knowledge and knew the misconceptions their students likely held (KoSM in the graph).

So low-achieving students are not swayed from their misconceptions, no matter how much the teacher knows. I wonder if that might have something to do with cultural rejection of intellectualism by low achievers. IOW, they may say to themselves "Who does that egg-head think he is? Everybody knows [insert misconception here]."

What science teachers need to know (that isn’t about science)