Abstract
With its long tradition, research on misconceptions helps to understand how concepts are learned and how learning in the disciplines can be supported. Up to now, research on misconceptions has focused on natural sciences, while research on misconceptions in behavioral sciences is scarce, not to say absent. In this study an attempt was made to reveal upper secondary school students’ misconceptions on doing research in behavioral sciences. The starting point for the study were research proposals of upper secondary school students. As part of a larger study, students were asked to write a research proposal in maximum two pages. A two-steps approach was adopted in the analysis of these research proposals. First, using a codebook containing both deductive and inductive codes, two-pagers were analyzed in order to identify ‘errors’. In a second step, an interpretative analysis aimed at inferring potential misconceptions underlying these errors. The study can be considered as a starting point for research on misconceptions in behavioral sciences which is currently missing in the field.
Highlights
With its long tradition, research on misconceptions helps to understand how concepts are learned and how learning in the disciplines can be supported
Most of the research on misconceptions has been conducted in natural sciences disciplines, emblematic is the research of Vosniadou (1994) on astronomy among primary school kids
Conducting Research This study focuses on conducting research in behavioral sciences
Summary
Research on misconceptions helps to understand how concepts are learned and how learning in the disciplines can be supported. In this study an attempt was made to reveal upper secondary school students’ misconceptions on doing research in behavioral sciences. The starting point for the study were research proposals of upper secondary school students. The study can be considered as a starting point for research on misconceptions in behavioral sciences which is currently missing in the field. En este estudio se intentó revelar los conceptos erróneos de los estudiantes de secundaria superior sobre la realización de investigaciones en ciencias del comportamiento. El estudio puede considerarse un punto de partida para la investigación sobre las concepciones erróneas en las ciencias del comportamiento, que actualmente no existe en este campo. Given the sheer absence of research on misconceptions in behavioral sciences on the one hand and the importance of ‘doing research’ in Flemish behavioral sciences curricula 1 on the other hand, this project aimed at identifying misconceptions of upper secondary school students on doing research in behavioral sciences. We define behavioral sciences as the study of human behavior (in psychology, educational sciences, cultural and social sciences)
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