Teachers Who Can Anticipate Their Students’ Misconceptions

In this American Educational Research Journal article (summarized in Education Week by Erik Robelen), Philip Sadler and colleagues from the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics had middle-school physical science teachers take the same multiple-choice test their students were taking and identify the wrong answers that students were most likely to choose. The study found that teachers who were best at predicting students’ misconceptions had the deepest knowledge of the subject matter and produced the best student-achievement gains. 

“The Influence of Teachers’ Knowledge on Middle-School Students’ Physical Science Learning” by Philip Sadler et al. in American Educational Research Journal, March 2013, summarized in Education Week, May 15, 2013 (Vol. 32, #31, p. 4-5), www.edweek.org

From the Marshall Memo #486