Dealing with Student Errors in Whole-Class Discussions of Biology Lessons at German Secondary Schools

Lena Von Kotzebue,Sonja Förtsch,Christian Förtsch,Birgit J Neuhaus

doi:10.1007/s10763-021-10171-4

Abstract

Dealing with student errors is a central feature of instructional quality. Teachers’ reactions to a student’s error and classmates’ errors can be crucial to the success of a lesson. A teacher should respond appropriately in terms of motivational and learning-related issues so that the error can become a learning opportunity for students. Currently, error situations have rarely been directly recorded and explored in empirical zstudies. This gap is the central focus of the current study in which we investigated errors in biology instruction within a cross-sectional design where biology lessons in German secondary schools were videotaped, teachers’ dealings with errors analyzed, and student achievement documented with pretests and posttests. The study found that constructively dealing with student errors had a significant positive effect on student achievement at the class level. Results confirmed the relevance of teachers’ appropriate dealing with student errors on learning in biology instruction.

Highlights

Instructional quality is described as a main influence on student outcomes such as interest or achievement
Descriptive Findings of How Teachers Deal with Student Errors (EMS) in German Biology Instruction
The results showed that student errors were often preceded by teacher questions that were of an unfavorable question type, which included closedended questions that required a one-word answer

Summary

Introduction

Instructional quality is described as a main influence on student outcomes such as interest or achievement. Steuer and Dresel (2015) noted that dealing with student errors in biology instruction was a key feature of instructional quality. Error situations were rarely recorded directly (e.g., Santagata, 2005); rather, studies indirectly explored errors with questionnaire surveys (e.g., Käfer et al, 2019; Kreutzmann, Zander, & Hannover, 2014) This is why this study systematically analyzed teachers’ reactions to student errors in videotaped German biology instruction using the error management sequences (EMS) that included a student’s error, the teacher’s dealing with this error, and the teacher’s question; the effect of teachers’ dealing with student errors on student achievement was explored

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Discussion

Conclusion