Overcoming students’ misconceptions in STEM disciplines

The conceptual nature of STEM disciplines means that students often start a subject with incorrect scientific assumptions. Misconceptions can be difficult to overcome, particularly in large classes where correcting them through personalised feedback is difficult or impossible. The presenters will discuss their development of a suite of active learning and student-centred teaching approaches that can be applied in large class settings to confront students’ misconceptions and bring about conceptual change. They will do so in the context of a large, second year Biochemistry and Molecular Biology subject, with the aim of eventually broadening the approach to include psychology and computer sciences. Preliminary data on successful methods to break strongly-held student misconceptions in large classes will also be outlined. More...