Changing misconceptions: a challenge to science educators

In this paper we examine misconceptions as personal explanatory knowledge judged by experts in the field to be in error. To those who have constructed them, misconceptions are not recognizable as different from any other explanatory knowledge: they are formed by the same process, take part in the generation of new knowledge and consequently are difficult to replace. As with construction, replacement involves the processes of equilibration. To date, educational strategies promoting equilibration in the classroom have attempted this through co‐operative debate, using the teacher as chairman and agent provocateur. Here, we briefly discuss the epistemological status of an alternative to co‐operative debate that is more teacher centred, and report on a comparative empirical test of the educational potential of the two strategies.