Learning Teaching,and Testing for Complex Conceptual Understanding

Abstract

Deficiencies in education and in the capabilities of students are gaining increased attention at all levels of the American educational system-from elementary schools to schools of professional education (GPEP, 1984; National Commission on Excellence in Education, 1983; National Science Foundation, 1982; Porter, 1989). Failures among students in the achievement of sound and useful learning of complex subject matter have also been identified in laboratories of cognitive science concerned with education, and the nature of these shortcomings, as well as their causes and possible remedies for them, is coming under increased investigation (e.g., Feltovich, Spiro, & Coulson, 1989; McCloskey, 1983; Spiro, Vispoel, Schmitz, Samarapungavan, & Boerger, 1987; White, in press). Deficiencies in the learning of complex material that are widespread and widely recognized include three major types: misconceptions and incorrect knowledge (wrong knowledge), the inability to flexibly apply knowledge in new situations (what was characterized long ago by Whitehead, 1929, as a problem of inert knowledge), and the lack of retention of knowledge that was acquired at an earlier time (lost knowledge).

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