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Student preconceptions (misconceptions, naïve understandings) are important for teachers to uncover, address, challenge and extend. These are commonly held (but not always scientifically accurate) ideas that children bring to the classroom. Students come to school with ideas about the world and science principles because of experiences and observations that have helped to shape those beliefs. Learners hang onto those ideas until multiple experiences cause them to question previously-held beliefs and to form new explanations.
Educators need to discover student preconceptions and be aware of the related scientifically accurate ideas. It is the teacher’s role to facilitate learning experiences that challenge inaccurate ideas, solidify developing ideas, and reinforce and extend scientifically accepted ideas. Knowing student preconceptions helps educators to ask probing questions and craft experiences to move students along to greater science understanding.
Below is a summary of the preconceptions and scientifically accurate ideas related to the Plant Growth and Development unit:
Preconceptions about Plants as Organisms:
Plants are something between living and inanimate that does not respire, eat, or reproduce.
Plants originate in shops, factories, and through the planting efforts of humans.
Scientifically Accepted Ideas:
Plants are living organisms that respire, reproduce, make their own food, and will exist entirely without humans.
Preconceptions about Plant Nutrients:
Water gives plants energy directly.
Scientifically Accepted Ideas:
Water is a part of the photosynthetic process that gives plants energy.
Preconceptions about Photosynthesis and Respiration:
Plants can survive and thrive in the dark.
Scientifically Accepted Ideas:
Plants need light in order to photosynthesize (unless in seed form, which has its own food source for a limited time) and will starve and die without it.
Preconceptions about Photosynthesis and Respiration:
Plants obtain their “food by absorbing minerals and nutrients from the soil through their roots.
Scientifically Accepted Ideas:
Plants need air and water to photosynthesize, and other materials are not “food” for plants, although they many contribute to growth.
Preconceptions about Photosynthesis and Respiration:
Photosynthesis and respiration are only gaseous exchanges.
Scientifically Accepted Ideas:
Photosynthesis and respiration are complex biological and chemical processes, as well as gaseous exchanges.
Preconceptions about Photosynthesis and Respiration:
Plant respiration is identical to breathing in animals.
Scientifically Accepted Ideas:
Plant respiration is a complex and continuous process.
Preconceptions about Photosynthesis and Respiration:
Plants do not release oxygen during photosynthesis.
Scientifically Accepted Ideas:
Plants do release oxygen during photosynthesis.
Preconceptions about Cells:
Plants “know” what is good for them in a conscious sense, and their cells will absorb accordingly.
Scientifically Accepted Ideas:
A cell is the structual and functional unit of all known living organisms. It is the smallest unit of an organisim that is classified as living and is sometimes called the building block of life.
Preconceptions about Cells:
Cells are separate from the plant.
Scientifically Accepted Ideas:
Cells are the building blocks of the plant organism and function together as a whole.
Preconceptions about Plant Parts:
Flowers only grow on herbaceous plants.
Scientifically Accepted Ideas:
Flowers grow on a variety of plants
Preconceptions about Plant Parts:
Desert plants do not have leaves.
Scientifically Accepted Ideas:
Desert plants do have leaves, although they may not be in a conventional form.
Preconceptions about Plant Parts:
Plants are only herbaceous and non-flowering.
Scientifically Accepted Ideas:
Plants are any organism that makes its own food through a photosynthetic process.
Preconceptions about Reproduction:
There is no correlation between the functions of flowers and beauty, seeds need to be bought to grow more plants, and fruit is solely for us to eat.
Scientifically Accepted Ideas:
The plant life cycle is a complex process where plants disperse seeds which grow into an adult plant, flower during its reproductive cycle, and produce seeds to propagate more plants.
Preconceptions about Reproduction:
The seed is a separate being from the plant, and it is a continuous source of food and energy.
Scientifically Accepted Ideas:
The seed provides a finite food source for plants when they are in their embryonic stages of growth.
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