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Scientific Misconceptions
Scientific misconceptions are commonly held beliefs about science that have no basis in actual scientific fact. Scientific misconceptions can also refer to preconceived notions based on religious and/or cultural influences. Many scientific misconceptions occur because of faulty teaching styles and the sometimes distancing nature of true scientific texts. Because students' prior knowledge and misconceptions are important factors for learning science, science teachers should be able to identify and address these conceptions. Types Misconceptions (a.k.a. alternative conceptions, alternative frameworks, etc.) are a key issue from constructivism in science education, a major theoretical perspective informing science teaching. In general, scientific misconceptions have their foundations in a few "intuitive knowledge domains, including folkmechanics (object boundaries and movements), folkbiology (biological species' configurations and relationships), and folkpsychology (interactiv ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Beliefs
A belief is an attitude that something is the case, or that some proposition is true. In epistemology, philosophers use the term "belief" to refer to attitudes about the world which can be either true or false. To believe something is to take it to be true; for instance, to believe that snow is white is comparable to accepting the truth of the proposition "snow is white". However, holding a belief does not require active introspection. For example, few carefully consider whether or not the sun will rise tomorrow, simply assuming that it will. Moreover, beliefs need not be ''occurrent'' (e.g. a person actively thinking "snow is white"), but can instead be ''dispositional'' (e.g. a person who if asked about the color of snow would assert "snow is white"). There are various different ways that contemporary philosophers have tried to describe beliefs, including as representations of ways that the world could be (Jerry Fodor), as dispositions to act as if certain things are true (Ro ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Concept Inventory
A concept inventory is a criterion-referenced test designed to help determine whether a student has an accurate working knowledge of a specific set of concepts. Historically, concept inventories have been in the form of multiple-choice tests in order to aid interpretability and facilitate administration in large classes. Unlike a typical, teacher-authored multiple-choice test, questions and response choices on concept inventories are the subject of extensive research. The aims of the research include ascertaining (a) the range of what individuals think a particular question is asking and (b) the most common responses to the questions. Concept inventories are evaluated to ensure test reliability and validity. In its final form, each question includes one correct answer and several distractors. Ideally, a score on a criterion-referenced test reflects the amount of content knowledge a student has mastered. Criterion-referenced tests differ from norm-referenced tests in that (in the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Misconceptions And Misuses Revealed, From Astrology To The Moon Landing "Hoax"
Each entry on this list of common misconceptions is worded as a correction; the misconceptions themselves are implied rather than stated. These entries are concise summaries of the main subject articles, which can be consulted for more detail. A common misconception is a viewpoint or factoid that is often accepted as true but which is actually false. They generally arise from conventional wisdom (such as old wives' tales), stereotypes, superstitions, fallacies, a misunderstanding of science, or the popularization of pseudoscience. Some common misconceptions are also considered to be urban legends, and they are often involved in moral panics. Arts and culture Business * Legal tender laws in the United States do not state that a private business, a person, or an organization must accept cash for payment, though it must be regarded as valid payment for debts when tendered to a creditor. a. b. c. * Adidas is not an acronym for either "All day I dream about sports", "All day ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wiley Bad Science Series
The Wiley Bad Science Series is a series of books by John Wiley & Sons Publishing about scientific misconceptions. The ''Publishers Weekly ''Publishers Weekly'' (''PW'') is an American weekly trade news magazine targeted at publishers, librarians, booksellers, and literary agents. Published continuously since 1872, it has carried the tagline, "The International News Magazine of ...'' review of the first book in the series, ''Bad Astronomy'', mentioned that the subsequent books will be about scientific misconceptions in biology, weather and the earth. * 2002: '' Bad Astronomy: Misconceptions and Misuses Revealed, from Astrology to the Moon Landing "Hoax"'', by Philip C. Plait * 2003: '' Bad Medicine: Misconceptions and Misuses Revealed, from Distance Healing to Vitamin O'', by Christopher Wanjek References {{reflist Wiley (publisher) books Misconceptions American non-fiction books ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Superseded Theories In Science
This list catalogs well-accepted theories in science and pre-scientific natural philosophy and natural history which have since been superseded by scientific theories. Many discarded explanations were once supported by a scientific consensus, but replaced after more empirical information became available that identified flaws and prompted new theories which better explain the available data. Pre-modern explanations originated before the scientific method, with varying degrees of empirical support. Some theories are discarded in their entirety, such as the replacement of the phlogiston theory by energy and thermodynamics. Some theories known to be incomplete or in some ways incorrect are still used. For example, Newtonian classical mechanics is accurate enough for practical calculations at everyday distances and velocities, and it is still taught in schools. The more complicated relativistic mechanics must be used for long distances and velocities nearing the speed of light, an ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
List Of Common Misconceptions
Each entry on this list of common misconceptions is worded as a correction; the misconceptions themselves are implied rather than stated. These entries are concise summaries of the main subject articles, which can be consulted for more detail. A common misconception is a viewpoint or factoid that is often accepted as true but which is actually false. They generally arise from conventional wisdom (such as old wives' tales), stereotypes, superstitions, fallacies, a misunderstanding of science, or the popularization of pseudoscience. Some common misconceptions are also considered to be urban legends, and they are often involved in moral panics. Arts and culture Business * Legal tender laws in the United States do not state that a private business, a person, or an organization must accept cash for payment, though it must be regarded as valid payment for debts when tendered to a creditor. a. b. c. * Adidas is not an acronym for either "All day I dream about sports", "All day ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Reasoning
Reason is the capacity of consciously applying logic by drawing conclusions from new or existing information, with the aim of seeking the truth. It is closely associated with such characteristically human activities as philosophy, science, language, mathematics, and art, and is normally considered to be a distinguishing ability possessed by humans. Reason is sometimes referred to as rationality. Reasoning is associated with the acts of thinking and cognition, and involves the use of one's intellect. The field of logic studies the ways in which humans can use formal reasoning to produce logically valid arguments. Reasoning may be subdivided into forms of logical reasoning, such as: deductive reasoning, inductive reasoning, and abductive reasoning. Aristotle drew a distinction between logical discursive reasoning (reason proper), and intuitive reasoning, in which the reasoning process through intuition—however valid—may tend toward the personal and the subjectively opa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Eric Mazur
Eric Mazur (born November 14, 1954) is a physicist and educator at Harvard University, and an entrepreneur in technology start-ups for the educational and technology markets. Mazur's research is in experimental ultrafast optics, condensed matter physics and peer instruction.Mazur, Eric (1997). ''Peer Instruction: A User's Manual'', Prentice Hall. Born in Amsterdam, Netherlands, he received his undergraduate and graduate degrees from Leiden University. Education Mazur studied physics and astronomy at Leiden University. He passed his "doctoraal examen" (equivalent to a master's degree) in 1977 and continued his graduate studies at the same institution. His PhD thesis investigated the structure of non-equilibrium angular momentum polarizations in polyatomic gases. Career and research Although he intended to go on to a career in industry with Philips N.V. in Eindhoven, he left Europe at the urging of his father, Peter Mazur, to pursue a postdoctoral study with Nobel laureate N ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Just-in-time Teaching
Just-in-time teaching (often abbreviated as JiTT) is a pedagogical strategy that uses feedback between classroom activities and work that students do at home, in preparation for the classroom meeting. The goals are to increase learning during classroom time, to enhance student motivation, to encourage students to prepare for class, and to allow the instructor to fine-tune the classroom activities to best meet students' needs. This should not be confused with just-in-time learning, which itself focuses on immediate connections between learners and the content that is needed at that moment. History Just-in-time teaching was developed for university level physics instructors in the late 1990s, but its use has since spread to many other academic disciplines. Early work was done in the physics department at Indiana University – Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) in collaboration with physics instructors at Davidson College and the United States Air Force Academy (USAFA). Sub ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Scientific Fact
A fact is a datum about one or more aspects of a circumstance, which, if accepted as true and proven true, allows a logical conclusion to be reached on a true–false evaluation. Standard reference works are often used to check facts. Scientific facts are verified by repeatable careful observation or measurement by experiments or other means. For example, "This sentence contains words." accurately describes a linguistic fact, and "The sun is a star" accurately describes an astronomical fact. Further, "Abraham Lincoln was the 16th President of the United States" and "Abraham Lincoln was assassinated" both accurately describe historical facts. Generally speaking, facts are independent of belief and of knowledge and opinion. Facts are different from theories, values, and objects. Etymology and usage The word ''fact'' derives from the Latin ''factum''. It was first used in English with the same meaning: "a thing done or performed"a meaning now obsolete."Fact" (1a). Oxf ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
