Counteracting detrimental effects of misconceptions on learning and metacomprehension accuracy: The utility of refutation texts and think sheets

Previous research has shown that misconceptions impair not only learners’ text comprehension and knowledge transfer but also the accuracy with which they predict their comprehension and transfer. In the present experiment with N = 92 university students, we investigated to what extent reading a refutation text or completing a think sheet compared with a control condition counteracts these adverse effects of misconceptions. The results revealed that both reading a refutation text and completing a think sheet supported learners with misconceptions in acquiring and accurately predicting their comprehension. Completing a think sheet additionally supported the learners in transferring their newly acquired knowledge, even though they were underconfident in their ability to do so. Moreover, learners who completed a think sheet were generally more accurate in discriminating between correctly and incorrectly answered test questions. Finally, delayed testing showed that the learning effects were quite stable, independent of the instructional method. This study reinforces the effectiveness of refutation texts and think sheets and provides important practical implications and avenues for future research.

THE EFFECTIVENESS OF THE REFUTATION TEXT TO IMPROVE UNDERSTANDING OF THE ACID-BASE CONCEPTS FOR HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS

Acid-base is a difficult subject to learn. It includes conceptually tricky words for the students. The theme is also considered difficult by teachers and prospective teachers in teaching and assessing student mastery. A misconception in chemistry topics is one of the biggest challenges for the teacher. This means that many students do not reach the learning objective. The acid-base question is considered one of the most challenging subjects, and there are many misunderstood concepts on this topic. Lack of understanding can be reduced by providing a simple and natural source of learning, such as a refutation text. This study aimed to determine the effectiveness of the refutation text to improve understanding of concepts and reduce misunderstanding in corrective learning on the acid-base topic for high school. There are six subtopics on acid-base content for high school. The test method used was the pre and post-project of a group, with a limited number of subjects. The test instrument used was the three-tiers of multiple choices for acid-base material (concept understanding’s test). The analysis result showed that 17 of 19 students had increased knowledge of concepts and decreased misconceptions. The concept change was significant, according to Mc Nemar Test. The value of effect size (ES) based on the Crochan-Q test was 4.12, a high category. It could be concluded that refutation text is effective enough to improve students' concepts and apply them to remedial learning.

Developing refutation text to resolve students’ misconceptions in addition and subtraction of integers

Students’ misconceptions in addition and subtraction of integers need to be addressed since this topic is a prerequisite for students to learn advanced mathematics topics such as algebra. Having misconceptions in understanding the prerequisite concepts will hamper the acquisition and integration of new knowledge. The purpose of this study was to develop refutation text to resolve the misconception of students in addition and subtraction of integers. Refutation text was developed in the form of student worksheet adopting the development model from Borg and Gall (1983). Tryout of refutation text involved fifteen seventh-grade students. The study found that (1) The experts’ validation reveals that refutation text is suitable to be used as learning media for students on addition and subtraction of integers; (2) The refutation text implemented in the tryout was useful to resolve students’ misconception in addition and subtraction of integers; and (3) The practitioner’s assessment and students’ response showed that refutation text is practical. Drawing from the findings, we argue that the developed refutation text help students correcting their misconceptions in the topics and could be used by the teachers in the classroom practices. However, the refutation text needs to be extended to anticipate students’ mistake in interpreting word problems by providing some possible mistakes and its correction. Miskonsepsi siswa dalam penjumlahan dan pengurangan bilangan bulat perlu diatasi karena materi ini merupakan prasyarat bagi siswa untuk mempelajari materi matematika lanjutan seperti aljabar. Kesalahan dalam memahami konsep prasyarat akan menghambat penerimaan dan integrasi pengetahuan baru. Penelitian ini bertujuan mengembangkan media pembelajaran refutation text untuk mengatasi miskonsepsi siswa dalam penjumlahan dan pengurangan bilangan bulat. Refutation text yang dikembangkan berbentuk Lembar Kerja Siswa (LKS) dengan merujuk pada model pengembangan Borg dan Gall (1983). Uji coba refutation text dilakukan pada 15 orang siswa SMP kelas VII. Hasil penelitian menunjukkan bahwa (1) hasil penilaian ahli menunjukkan refutation text layak digunakan sebagai media pembelajaran bagi guru dalam mengajarkan penjumlahan dan pengurangan bilangan bulat; (2) refutation text yang diterapkan di kelas uji coba efektif dalam mengatasi miskonsepsi siswa dalam penjumlahan dan pengurangan bilangan bulat; dan (3) hasil penilaian praktisi dan respon siswa menunjukkan bahwa refutation text praktis digunakan sebagai media pembelajaran untuk mengatasi miskonsepsi siswa. Dalam hal ini, refutation text yang dikembangkan membantu siswa memperbaiki kesalahan konsep pada materi penjumlahan dan pengurangan bilangan bulat dan bisa digunakan oleh guru di kelas. Namun, refutation text tersebut perlu dikembangkan untuk mengantisipasi kesalahan siswa dalam mengintepretasi soal cerita dengan menyediakan beberapa kemungkinan kesalahan intepretasi dan perbaikan.

THE REFUTATION TEXT IN POE TO REDUCE THE QUANTITY OF STUDENTS’ MISCONCEPTION

The aim of this paper is to know the decreasing of the quantity student’s misconceptions after given a Refutation Text in Predict-Observe-Explain (POE) learning model by researcher. The hydrostatic pressure misconceptions consist of four sub-misconceptions. This research is a quantitative research with weak experimental design. Sampling technique applied purposive sampling and has involve 32 students on 9th grade of junior high school in Pandeglang, Banten, Indonesia. The diagnostic test is a multiple-choice form with three-tier test (TTT) format. The result of this research founded that there are decreasing of the quantity of student’s misconception on the hydrostatic pressure. The largest percentage decreasing of the quantity of student’s misconception is on the misconceptions 1 about 79.31%. Misconceptions 1 is the magnitude of Hydrostatic Pressure inversely proportional to it area surface. For the future research, suggested to combine strategies or methods for optimal decreasing the quantity of student’s misconceptions