Inaccurate Conceptions Research Articles

Teachers' Conceptions of Creativity and Creative Students

Teachers’ conceptions of creativity and creative students were investigated. Questionnaires were administered to elementary school teachers to examine their attitudes, beliefs, and current classroom practices. Teachers were found to possess inaccurate concepts regarding what constitutes creativity and revealed conflicts with the classroom behaviors demonstrated by creative students. The paradox between teachers’ reported support for creativity enrichment and virtual lack of related classroom practice is explored as a result of multiple misconceptions and contributing variables. The importance of providing creative learning opportunities in the regular classroom is well- established (Cole, Sugioka, & Lynch, 1999; Torrance, 1976). Herein lies the challenge. To foster student creativity, teachers need to identify characteristics of the creative personality, recognize creative production, understand the cognitive processes used by creative students, and ultimately establish an environment that promotes the child’s interests (Hill, 1992). Ironically, findings from Torrance’s (1963) study of 650 teachers revealed that the personalities of creative students are at odds with the student characteristics preferred by most teachers. Behaviors of creative students, such as being playful, emotional, open, critical of others, and stubborn, are discouraged and thought to be disruptive to the existing organization. Regarding school discipline, Guncer and Oral (1993) reported that teachers perceived highly creative students as nonconformists, easily distracted, experiencing obstacles in fulfilling their academic obligations. Dawson (1997) reported that the

What to say to a skeptical metaphysician: A defense manual for cognitive and behavioral scientists

A wave of recent work in metaphysics seeks to undermine the anti-reductionist, functionalist consensus of the past few decades in cognitive science and philosophy of mind. That consensus apparently legitimated a focus on what systems do, without necessarily and always requiring attention to the details of how systems are constituted. The new metaphysical challenge contends that many states and processes referred to by functionalist cognitive scientists are epiphenomenal. It further contends that the problem lies in functionalism itself, and that, to save the causal significance of mind, it is necessary to re-embrace reductionism. We argue that the prescribed return to reductionism would be disastrous for the cognitive and behavioral sciences, requiring the dismantling of most existing achievements and placing intolerable restrictions on further work. However, this argument fails to answer the metaphysical challenge on its own terms. We meet that challenge by going on to argue that the new metaphysical skepticism about functionalist cognitive science depends on reifying two distinct notions of causality (one primarily scientific, the other metaphysical), then equivocating between them. When the different notions of causality are properly distinguished, it is clear that functionalism is in no serious philosophical trouble, and that we need not choose between reducing minds or finding them causally impotent. The metaphysical challenge to functionalism relies, in particular, on a naïve and inaccurate conception of the practice of physics, and the relationship between physics and metaphysics.

Astronomical misconceptions and the effectiveness of science museums in promoting conceptual change

The present study identified misconceptions concerning the effect of gravity on planetary motion and attempted to foster conceptual change through the hands-on, informal environment of a science museum. Participants were given pre- and posttests to illuminate possible misconceptions and to assess the effectiveness of the informal curriculum. Results indicated that inaccurate conceptions concerning the relationship between mass, gravity, and planetary motion are plentiful. Although some misconceptions remained intact after instruction, most were replaced with more scientifically accurate notions. Mean test scores significantly increased after instruction (p<0.05), and a follow-up survey demonstrated that the conceptual change was stable

Methodologies for interrill soil erosion studies

Due to wide range of experimental techniques reported in the literature for determining interrill erodibility and soil loss values, meaningful comparisons between experiments often cannot be made. Furthermore, inaccurate concepts are developed because erosion processes are dependent upon methodologies. The purpose of this paper is to discuss problems related to both laboratory and field rainfall simulator experiments. Rainfall simulators cannot duplicate a wide range of rainfall intensities and, at the same time, have similar energies as natural rainstorms, unless several different nozzles are used. Rainfall intensity in most simulators is created by varying the frequency of spray oscillation. This intermittent spray characteristic of most simulators, and the constant drop size characteristic of other simulators, greatly affects results. Erosion pan design for laboratory studies and preparation of soil samples placed in the pans also can influence erosion results. We conclude that standardization of rainfall simulator design and test procedures will allow better comparison of erosion results to be made among researchers.

What is a relapse? Fifty ways to leave the wagon

Binary thinking has often guided research and practice in the addiction field. For example, emphasis has been given to identifying whether an individual is "alcoholic" or not, and the dichotomous judgement that a client is either drinking or abstinent has been used to judge treatment effectiveness. Research on the nature of alcohol problems, however, indicates that they lie along several modestly interrelated continuous dimensions of severity, rather than occurring as a single syndrome qualitatively distinct from normality. Similarly, changes in addictive behaviors in general, and treatment outcomes in particular, are complex phenomena not readily captured by dichotomous classification. The term "relapse" is itself seriously problematic in various ways, and its definition elusive. It represents a somewhat arbitrary binary judgement imposed on the flow of behavior, and carries negative evaluative overtones. A potentially detrimental abstinence violation effect is implicit in the very use of the term "relapse", which thereby may become a self-fulfilling prophecy. Further, it implicitly pathologizes what is in fact a rather common event in the course of behavior change, and embodies an unrealistic and inaccurate conception of how successful change occurs over time. For these reasons, it may be useful in research and clinical practice to abandon the notion of "relapse" and focus instead on terminology that better describes the normal resolution process for addictive behaviors.

Traumatic Brain Injury

School-based speech-language pathologists from 10 states responded to a survey concerning their readiness to provide services to students with traumatic brain injuries (TBIs). Survey responses provided a means of exploring speech-language pathologists’ knowledge of TBI and facilitated recognition of accurate and inaccurate conceptions held by school-based speech-language pathologists concerning the characteristics and behaviors, criteria for identification and verification, and procedures for the assessment, treatment, and reintegration of students with TBI. Findings indicated that training had a positive effect on speech-language pathologists’ knowledge of assessment, treatment, and overall management of students with TBI; however, a large percentage of school-based speech-language pathologists remain uncertain about providing services to students with TBI even after receiving specific TBI training. Furthermore, school-based speech-language pathologists continue to hold many misconceptions concerning TBI and its consequences.

Power On! Exploring Mean, Median, and Mode with a Spreadsheet

Deeply entrenched intuitions and understandings not consistent with commonly accepted statistical facts prevent some students from having success with activities involving statistics. For example, we have talked to many students who, despite knowing the common algorithm for mean, believe that adding zero to a set of data will not change the mean of the set. This notion is consistent with other research findings (Bright and Hoeffner, 1993). Another commonly held belief is that a small sample reliably represents a given population (Garfield and Ahlgren 1988; Shaughnessy 1992). Some people are influenced more by personal anecdotes or advice from individuals than by data gathered from large, diverse samples (Nisbett and Ross 1980). In many situations, conceptions are so deeply ingrained that mere exposure to statistical ideas is not sufficient to overcome them (Mevarech 1983). Simply introducing computational rules will not give students enough experience to overcome their generally inaccurate conceptions and intuitions about statistics. Nor will traditional instruction help students develop a sufficiently deep understanding of key statistical concepts so that they can transfer their knowledge to new problems and situations. Students need to confront their often inaccurate and inconsistent beliefs about statistics through experimentation and prediction (Shaughnessy 1992).

Attention deficit disorder: Problems with preconceived diagnosis

The diagnosis of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) has become a household term with many inaccurate conceptions and expectations. The label is being applied to children with a broad range of mental health problems and developmental disorders. This study looks at the impact of preconceived diagnosis on assessment and treatment of children and adolescents. Alarming trends of overidentification of ADHD, which lead to inappropriate treatment and management, are identified. Other causes of the target symptoms are discussed. The impact of preconceived diagnosis on treatment outcome, patient functioning, and other areas are addressed. The need for greater community awareness of the broad spectrum of disorders of childhood and adolescence is identified.

Accurate and Inaccurate Conceptions About Osmosis That Accompanied Meaningful Problem Solving

This study focused on the knowledge of six outstanding science students who solved an osmosis problem meaningfully. That is, they used appropriate and substantially accurate conceptual knowledge to generate an answer. Three generated a correct answer; three, an incorrect answer. This paper identifies both the accurate and inaccurate conceptions about osmosis of each correct and incorrect solver. The investigation consisted of a presolving clinical interview, think‐aloud solving of the problem, and retrospective report of the solving. Of the 12 accurate conceptions identified here, two were especially important in enabling these solvers to generate a correct answer. Of the 8 inaccurate conceptions, either of 2 blocked a correct answer. Four, however, accompanied (and could therefore be concealed by) a correct answer. Teachers could use this information to make a meaningful solving of this problem accessible to more students and to identify more effectively students' inaccurate conceptions about osmosis.

Inaccurate Conceptions

Inaccurate Conceptions

The development of curricular knowledge: a case of problematic pedagogical content knowledge during advanced knowledge acquisition.

The study examined what and how 12 K-8 physical education teacher education (PETE) majors learned about a movement approach that was discrepant from their experiences with physical education. This article describes one portion of the findings: what and how PETE majors learned about a movement approach to game play/strategy and mechanisms of advanced knowledge acquisition that contributed to confusion about this topic. Analytic induction and constant comparison were used to analyze qualitative data from interviews, observations, and relevant documents. Eleven PETE majors initially maintained partial or inaccurate conceptions about a movement approach to game play/strategy or taught this content in ways that were inconsistent with their goals for physical education, their knowledge about learning and teaching game skills, and the information presented by faculty and cooperating teachers. Interacting with students' prior knowledge and what and how faculty taught, the following learning mechanisms contributed to confusion: (a) overgeneralizing a contrast between a movement and traditional approach, (b) forming associations prior to adequate differentiation, and (c) overrelying on bottom-up thinking when initially developing lesson/unit progressions.

The social worker as psychoanalyst

This paper examines the development of social workers as psychoanalysts to determine whether psychoanalysis is a legitimate function of social work. Historically, social work has found psychoanalytic theory helpful. However, it is generally understood that for the caseworker to competently practice psychoanalytic psychotherapy, advanced training is necessary. Although many social workers have availed themselves of this opportunity, the profession continues to believe that the practice of psychoanalysis is incompatible with social work. This is based upon an inaccurate conception of psychoanalysis. Since the social work psychoanalyst is concerned with the client's adaptation to the environment, his or her practice can easily be defined as clinical social work.

Student misconceptions, declarative knowledge, stimulus conditions, and problem solving in basic electricity

Previous research has indicated that students' prior inaccurate conceptions about physical concepts interfere with the solution to physics problems and the acquisition of new concepts. In the present study, the effects of students misconceptions, declarative knowledge, and stimulus conditions on student solution to a problem in basic electricity were investigated. The results indicated that students performance was influenced by their knowledge of relevant declarative facts and the stimulus conditions of the experiment as well as by their models (or misconceptions) of the electrical situations. The theoretical and educational implications of the findings are discussed.

Role Reversal: An Inaccurate and Destructive Concept

Role Reversal: An Inaccurate and Destructive Concept

Optics for Ophthalmologists: A Board-Review Manual

This book is unfortunately riddled with errors, inappropriate terminology, incompletely explained or inaccurate concepts, mathematical mistakes, and incorrectly drawn diagrams. For example, the definition of vergence as a direction on page 5 is inaccurate and unusable. The definition of on page 8 is incomplete, not taking into account virtual object space to the right of the lens. On pages 10 and 14, objects and images are said to have vergence, and objects and images are actually labeled with the capital letters U and V, rather than the customary 0 and I. This will cause great confusion among ophthalmology residents. On page 21, the definition of magnification is not an intuitive one, but rather is presented as a mathematical definition of little lasting use to the ophthalmologist. On page 38, f-stop is confused with aperture. On pages 42 to 44, the term chief ray is used where central ray

Social spencerism not social darwinism

Social Darwinism, an historically inaccurate concept, originated from the social selection theories of Herbert Spencer, which maintained that might is right. The expression is an obstacle to understanding Darwinian evolution and should be discarded.

FIBRE CONCEPTS

There seems to be no doubt that some people think that fibre is the apple peelings, the bran, the ‘wrappings’ of plant foods and even the skin and tendons of meat that were once removed in food preparation and were considered to ‘have no goodness’. This led to the belief that ‘fibre foods’ are the bulky, coarse unrefined foods. Many food scientists would say that the people who think in this way have an inaccurate concept of fibre and many educationists would say they have some facets of the fibre concept but not all the important ones.

Institutional Sexism in the Underworld: A View From the Inside

In this report we examine the views of male thieves toward women as potential accomplices or partners in crime. Our interviews revealed, in general, that females are perceived as lacking the qualities for being good thieves (e.g., heart, trust), exhibit specific deficiencies which limit their actual or perceived ability to perpetrate crimes, and tend to be relegated to subservient roles if and when they are involved in mixed‐sex crime activities unless special opportunities or circumstances exist in which a female partner is distinctly an advantage to the male for pulling off the crime. This institutionalized sexism in the underworld narrowly restricts the illegitimate opportunities available to females and helps explain why females are seldom involved in lucrative criminal enterprise. We conclude by suggesting: that the study of female criminality has been retarded by an inaccurate conception of crime as an isolated act committed by a person, without regard to that person's relationships with other people, groups, and organizations.

Leisure and the development of culture

The place of leisure and free time in both preliterate and preindustrial societies has received little attention by leisure researchers, often leading to inaccurate conceptions of the nature of work, leisure, and time-use in such cultures. This note is an effort to bring recent anthropological data and theory concerning the nature of leisure in preindustrial and preliterate cultures to the attention of leisure researchers and to examine the relationships, if any, between free time availability, its use, and the development of culture. An economic surplus has often been considered as a necessary, and perhaps a sufficient, condition for social stratification, craft specialization, and other forms of cultural elaboration to occur. Specifically, the change from hunting and gathering to sedentary agriculture during the neolithic has been suggested as the cultural development which provided the economic security required for increased cultural complexity. This economic security consists of three related components-surpluses of food, population, and leisure or free time. While Just (1980) traces the idea that surplus leisure contributes to cultural elaboration to Jean-Jacques Rousseau and John Stuart Mill, the general concept of economic surplus, which can be defined as a “. . portion of total output which is in excess of the requirements of subsistence . . .” (LeClair and Schneider 1968) dates most directly to David Ricardo’s (1817) Principles of Political Economy and Taxation. In turn, some anthropologists saw economic surplus as a kind of prime mover in cultural development. Boas (1940) most clearly stated this thesis:

What's the Difference? Pediatric Residents and Their Inaccurate Concepts Regarding Statistics

Two multiple-choice questions were designed to assess pediatric knowledge of two statistical concepts: (1) correlation and (2) probability values for statistical significance. One question was administered to 684 residents from 24 major pediatric training programs; this response rate represented 84% of all residents in these programs (PL-1, PL-2, and PL-3 years). In 20 of these programs, the second question was administered to 437 residents, representing a 79% response rate. Less than 20% of the residents responded correctly to the first question, and approximately half chose correctly on the second question. Further, no trend toward improvement was apparent with additional years of residency training. This limited knowledge of statistical concepts suggests that pediatricians are not well equipped to evaluate the scientific merit of research reported in pediatric journals.