Re: [Phys-l] Sometimes The Facts Don't Matter

["John Clement" <clement@hal-pc.org>]

There are a number of things at work when students get it backwards.  Very
strong preconceptions are hard to attack, but one of the best way of
attacking them is to help student build a coherent framework for their
conceptions.  I have noted that lower level thinkers have much more
difficulty with preconceptions, and at the low levels, proof by
contradiction is impossible.

It turns out that prediction is a very clever strategy, and must be done
very shortly before the discrepant experiment.  This is because when you
recall something or bring it into short term memory, it is subsequently
stored again into long term memory.  So it is possible to change long term
memory when the preconception is in short term memory.

And there are certainly individuals who cling much more tightly to
preconceptions than others.  But there is the famous example of Einstein and
QM.  Joe Redish did not believe that PER was right so he tried to improve
his lectures and only after utter failure did he look at alternate
strategies.  Mazur did the same.  But he also tried some simple tests to see
if the FCI was actually showing a real effect.  The true scientist will be
willing to doubt their beliefs and change them.  Boltzmann was right, but
his contemporaries rejected his ideas in the same way that early surgeons
rejected the overwhelming evidence that cleanliness reduced infection rates.
So we all have this tendency.

John M. Clement
Houston, TX
> Yes. I use peer instruction in my classes. It really has revolutionized
> how I teach and how students learn. However, students will get conceptual
> questions wrong on tests, even after they have seen the demo or a similar
> question previously.
>
> Forum for Physics Educators <phys-l@carnot.physics.buffalo.edu> writes:
> > Actually the situation is even worse.  If you ask the same students to
> > recount 2 weeks later what they saw in a demonstration that went against
> > their preconceptions, they will say they saw the opposite of the
> > demonstration.  Mazur and Crouch found that the student must first
> predict
> > what they will see before the demo, and then discuss why the predictions
> > was
> > wrong.  "You see what you believe!".  This also happens with respect to
> > education research where doubters reject evidence in favor of anecdotes
> > and
> > belief.  "But the plural of anecdote is not data."
> >
> > John M. Clement
> > Houston, TX
> >
> > > This is a transcript of Talk of the Nation about people facing facts
> > > and entrenching themselves in their beliefs and preconceptions. It is
> > > based
> > > in politics but wouldn't the same hold true for our Physics Students. I
> > > have
> > > experienced students who see some demonstration and explain it fairly
> > > accurately and then asked the next day to explain a similar situation
> > and
> > > preconceptions win out again. Just thought it would be an interesting
> > read
> > > for some.