An Attempt to Correct Erroneous Ideas Among Teacher Education Students: The Effectiveness of Refutation Texts.

Marta Ferrero,Emmanouil Konstantinidis,Miguel A Vadillo

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2020.577738

Abstract

There is sound evidence about the high prevalence of misconceptions about education among pre-service teachers. This trend continues after students complete the degree in education and once they are in the exercise of their profession. In fact, several studies show that these misconceptions are widespread among in-service teachers. Erroneous ideas about education may divert material and human resources to poor grounded methods and teaching tools, compromising the quality of education. Strategies to debunk misconceptions among future teachers, who may not have a firm position about many educational issues, might contribute to reversing this trend. The main goal of the present study was to assess the efficacy of refutation texts in the correction of misconceptions among pre-service teachers. As in previous studies with in-service teachers, refutation texts were effective in reducing participants’ endorsement of misconceptions. But this effect was short-lived and did not affect participants’ intention to use educational methods that are based on the misconceptions addressed in the refutation texts.

Highlights

One of the most important strategies to guarantee high quality teaching is to endow teachers with subject-matter knowledge and a repertoire of evidence-based pedagogical skills (Ingvarson and Rowe, 2008)
The first observation that stands out is that utilizing refutational texts seems to have an effect on the rate of statement endorsement, as there is a decrease from Phase 1 to Phase 2
The analysis showed a significant interaction between Condition and Phase, χ2(4) = 28.60, p < 0.001, suggesting that timing of intervention is crucial for the actual effect of intervention: as expected in Phase 1 there is no difference between conditions

Summary

Introduction

One of the most important strategies to guarantee high quality teaching is to endow teachers with subject-matter knowledge and a repertoire of evidence-based pedagogical skills (Ingvarson and Rowe, 2008). Teacher education students in many training colleges are often invited to rely on observation and hard-earned experience rather than on rigorous, high-quality research and evidence when selecting educational methods for the classroom (Seidenberg, 2013). Teacher education programs do not always include authoritative educational research findings (Moats, 1999; Gersten, 2001) nor content knowledge about how research is conducted and how to interpret its findings (Levin, 2013; Seidenberg, 2013; Hammersley-Fletcher and Lewin, 2015).

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Conclusion