Identifying and Addressing Astronomy Misconceptions in the Classroom

Abstract

Students come into our classrooms with many misconceptions about science in general and astronomy in particular (see numerous papers and references in Novak, 1993 and Pfundt & Duit 1993). These beliefs evolve from a variety of sources throughout childhood and adolescence (Comins, 1993a, 1993b, 1995). I have found that directly addressing these incorrect beliefs in the context of their origins helps my students replace them with correct knowledge. By understanding the origins of their misconceptions students can screen information more effectively, i.e., they learn to think more critically. My purpose in this paper is to briefly identify origins of misconceptions and classroom techniques for replacing them.