TE861A
Instructors: Dr. Teresa Gustafson and Dr. Randi Stanulis
Semester: Spring 2012
This class was all about assessing student understanding, and working with prior conceptions to build more accurate student understandings. It really was an eye-opener for me, just how many things students come to school with prior ideas, many of which are incorrect. We learned about how to facilitate students recognizing that they have misconceptions in order to correct those.
Work Sample: Solar System Lesson Plan
During this lesson, I worked with the same fourth grade class as for the lesson sequence for TE861B, but with a much better idea of what was possible. I kept things much simpler, and we were actually able to complete the activity, if not exactly in the time predicted, at least much closer. However, despite my careful teachings, nearly a quarter of the class left with the misconception that the sun was actually the size of an 8" soccer ball. We did have a discussion the next time I saw them, about models, and how it didn't make sense for the sun to be so small, so hopefully a few of them realized their error.