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"Learning is concerned with ideas, their structure and the evidence for them. It is not simply the acquisition of correct responses, a verbal repertoire or a set of behaviours. There is considerable evidence that they [students' personal scientific conceptions] are not readily abandoned, but are retained together with the accepted scientific view" (McDermott, Phys Today:24–32, 1984). "Basic knowledge gain under conventional instruction is essentially independent of the professor" (Halloun and Hestenes, Am J Phys 53:1043–1055, 1985a). The work of Halloun and Hestenes ((1985a), Am J Phys 53:1043–1055) appeared shortly after the paper of McDermott ((1984), Phys Today:24–32).Subsequently, Coletta and Phillips ((2005), Am J Phys 73: 1172–1182) showed a very strong positive correlation between individual students' normalized FCI gain and their scores on Lawson's Classroom Test of Scientific Reasoning (Lawson, J Res Sci Teach 15(1):11–24, 1978).Because a student's understanding is different from the perspective found in the textbook and delivered by their instructor in the classroom, they misread the textbook and mishear the words of their instructor.Additionally students may even distort their perception and their information about the world around them. Changes in items of information that produce or restore consistency are referred to as dissonance-reducing changes (Festinger, Sci Am 207:93–102, 1962). To produce conceptual change, Kalman et al. ((1999), Phys Edu Res Suppl Am J Phys 67:S45–S51) argue that it is far better to get the student to critically analyze the two concepts and come to the realization that the personal scientific notion needs to be replaced.

DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-66140-7_3

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