How People Learn:
Brain, Mind,
Experience, and School
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BOX 9.4
A Program for Diagnosing Preconceptions in
Physics
A computer-based DIAGNOSER program has helped teachers increase student
achievement in high school physics (Hunt and Minstrell, 1994). The
program assesses students' beliefs (preconceptions) about various
physical phenomena--beliefs that often fit their everyday experiences
but are not consistent with physicists' views of the world (see Chapters 2, 3, 6, and 7). Given particular
beliefs, sets of activities are recommended that help students
reinterpret phenomena from a physicist's perspective. Teachers
incorporate information from the diagnoser to guide how they teach.
Data from experimental and comparison classrooms on students'
understanding of important concepts in physics show strong superiority
for those in the experimental groups; see the graph below.
FIGURE 9.4 Mercer Island versus comparable school mechanics vinal and
MAT math scores. SOURCE: Hunt and Minstrell (1994).
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