two out of ninety is not a big thing to worry. As there are one or two student in the class not performing good. If majority of student are not giving answer to the very simple questions then it means that they are not having main/basic concepts about things. I think if student can understand the concept and also know how to write in English. he/she can express in his own words. for those students who are very poor in studies. try to make there concept clear with some different and interesting examples. like our science teacher use to memorise us about purine and pyrimidines, that look purine is a small word but two ring structure and pyrimidines is lengthy word then purine but have is single ringed. another example like student confuse either arteries have valves or veins so our teacher told us that remember V for vein and V for valve so I always remember that veins have valves not arteries. in short try to teach science to such students more technically. hope they will find it interesting and will also understand it and remember for long time.

Watch this nice short video, by Derek Muller (the Director of Veritasium).

His point is: How do you make a film that teaches people about science?

Don't just tell them the facts, you need to first break down the misconceptions.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RQaW2bFieo8&feature=player_embedded

here is Veritasium channel on Youtube, a good collection of videos

http://www.youtube.com/veritasium

I use the NSTA Press assessment probe books. The probes are activities that are designed to help students realize their misconceptions and hopefully understand the correct science concepts. You can read more about them on this website:

http://uncoveringstudentideas.org/books/uncovering-student-ideas-in-science

The website has some samples that you can look at.

You can also "google" some on the titles of the activities to see if you can find them on the internet. For example, I googled: Is it a Theory? probe, and quickly found the PDF. I use this activity. I have students fill out the sheet - no names, then crumple their papers into balls, gently toss them around them around the room to mix them up. Students share out some of the answers and then it gives me the opportunity to point out the correct concepts about theories. I also warn the students that they may feel somewhat uncomfortable to find out something they thought was true or taught them by a previous teacher is wrong. We tend to hold on to the first ideas that we learn, and make some assumptions about the way the world works that can be very faulty.

For the two students who didn't study. . .perhaps they could be provided with some graphic organizers that help them put their science information together in a way that assists them in studying and remembering. I have an example on my blog and if you do an internet search for graphic organizers you will find many different ways to organize information. http://cavalierscience.blogspot.com/2009/04/cell-structures-and-functions-foldable.html

Thanks for your responses. [Surriya, I mentioned that 2 students got an F. What I didn't say then, was that 5 others had grades from D+ to E, which are also considered as Fail.]

I find that my students seem to dislike studying from the international books that really provide a good deal of info. In my time, I loved reading from books. If I made an error I can always go back to these hard copies (and remove my mistakes and misconceptions). Hard copies have an 'aura' of permanence.

But my students dislike studying from hard copies. They do it only when necessary. So they also buy the thin locally produced book, cheaper and less to learn! They prefer to read digital print. I'm not like that, so book-worms like me are probably a thing of the past. But it looks like we have to find ways to help our Generation Y/Z students.

If 88 did well on the midterm, your lecturing and teaching was done well. These 2 students did not care about the course and were not interested in learning the subject you were lecturing. An F grade on a midterm is appropriate motivation to give them. We learn from failure. They will need to decide for themselves to be interested, to study and to learn the material or fail the course. When they get jobs after their education they will learn that they will be fired for lack of performance. In a company it is often a team effort and the actions of incompetent individuals can affect many. So it is your duty to give an F and not to feel bad about that.

My personal experience in the teaching of mathematical sciences is as follows: the mathematical sciences, like other sciences, should be imparted in the most agile manner, in a dynamic form, easy-to-understand although the subject could be complex, practical while explaining the theoretical basics of the principles, properties, theorems, corollaries, and other theoretical elements that constitute it, and bringing those aspects of the subject to teach that can influence the most on his professional life in the future

Now to teach the mathematical sciences, as well as other sciences in particular, the following elements should be considered: students at any level of non-higher education are divided into three large groups. The first group consists of those who are interested in studying sciences in the future and for whom the study of mathematics, physics, among others, because coincide with their interests and priorities generally gets good notes and they are good students. The quality of the professor has some influence on the quality of learning of this type of students, but this is not decisive in his future professional preparation.

There is a second group of students that does not have any inclination to study science careers for which is very difficult to be interested in the study of mathematics and physics at the intermediate level. In this case, if the teacher does not have the necessary quality and experience to encourage this type of student to study these matters usually they get low notes or suspended periodically. If the teacher does not have a good method of teaching or is untrained, or is inexperienced then the results can be very frustrating.

There is a third group of students who are undecided for which science or literatures do not attract them enough to decide the type of university career would like to study in the future. In this case, the quality and experience of the teacher is crucial in order to allow this type of student to get the greatest benefits possible from classes of mathematics, physics, or other similar ones that are receiving. If the teacher has no experience or quality in the teaching method used, then it is very difficult to predict which will be the result you can get from this type of students.

I basically agree with Jorge: you should not lump all students together (even though it's cheaper that way).

But what Jorge didn't emphasize is that, ideally, to teach each of the three groups you need *quite different skills and personalities*. And this is not cheap to organize.

Following Lev comments may I add the following: If you a good teacher with experience and skill then you can use him/her in teaching all groups of students without major difficulties. Of course students in the second and third groups could have some problems to following him/her and to get good notes.

If you have a not very experience teacher without not to good skill then the students in the first group will suffer a little bit but they will move forward but you will have major problems in the second and third groups of students. If you have a teacher without experience and skill then you will have some problems with the students in the first group and they will not receive a good preparation in science but in general they will move forward, but you will have a lot of problems with the second and third groups of students.

For this reason, you have to have a good selection scheme in order to allocate available teachers in the best way possible throughout the education system according to their experience and skill to get the best results from them and to have a good re-qualification system for improving their skill and experience.

Also, a more 'spiritual' (not in the religious sense) orientation of the teacher is very good for the upper half of the class, especially given today's materialistic orientation of the society. But, obviously, today those teachers are much harder to find. (To attract them, the smart school principal would pay them more.) After all, science itself is a 'spiritual' undertaking, and students have to understand this side of science.

Hi everyone, thanks for your comments. I have noted your ideas and the points that you raised.

Jeffrey, thanks for your contribution!

Miranda, students believe seeing rather than studying. Any visual clippings related to your subject or conducting frequent practical skills or workshop on few of the experiments will provide a better understanding even for a dull student. I apologize for calling student as dull (But, they do wonders in practical). I have seen it through my own experience.

Prof. D.E. Babu

Students understand better through an efficient class room discussion by taking practical examples around. Mere theoretical approaches lead to misconceptions.

Thanks Udaya and Prof Babu. I agree that science lessons that include practicals and visuals will benefit the students.

A few topics that I teach this semester do not include practicals. Expression of Biological Info is one of them. So I did a simple 'role-play' to help my students understand 'Translation'.

Another topic without practical is 'Introduction to rDNA technology'. I will try to think of what I can do. Thanks again to you!

This question reminds me of a research conducted by a colleague. It is about misconceptions in chemistry. He found out that the lessons they have misconceived are really related to their environment or situation they have already experienced. The problem was that these "prior knowledge" was deeply rooted in their memory that it persists and dominates. So no matter how good the teacher delivers, the students will connect it to their past experiences and thats how misconception occurs. In other words, if we will trace the root cause of misconception first and iron out the similarities and differences with the new lesson, and establish a connection then I think we could lessen misconception in science.

Thanks Elmer for sharing how difficult it is for us to trace misconceptions, and identify its causes. Actually I find that there are many misconceptions that my students bring to college.

Our director has said that about 80-90% of our students are 'average'. Among the good students, I am thankful that the occurrences of misconceptions are rare.

Usually there are fewer alternative conceptions on a problem or phenomenon than there are students. Open discussion can identify the most common few of these, and then begins the work of "science": testing hypotheses and predictions against experiments. This also teaches that evidence is often not enough to make us reject a theory. Theories evolve to fit new data. Standard explanations are really based on how well they work across many, many domains. Students cannot possibly see that scope in the classroom. Scientific explanations evolve over decades, not days.

 Thanks @Manuel.  I do agree that science corrects itself, and responsible scientists correct ourselves, as we gain more accurate knowledge.  It's an interesting dataset, congrats.

In the last ten years (about 2005 to 2015), I observed a sharp change in the students with a downhill declining movement. Students have lost concentration & their minds have been attacked by various distractions. The paradox is that they think they know a lot (due to handling IT tools) but their knowledge is too superficial. When you & I were students, we were subjected to tough challenging exams & assignments and no one would interfere with our lecturers' work & decisions. At present, some universities' administrations intervene in a wrong manner, e.g. they will prevent a lecturer to give True/False questions in subjects which involve serious cases that require yes or no decision (such as in an industrial plant or in diagnosis). How come lecturers will produce high quality students when they are not supported from above ?!

Dear Miranda,

A teacher cannot learn instead of his/her students. What one can do is to deliver fine and understandable lectures, give practical classes with a lot of good exercises that move the brain, demand quality homework and to show the best textbooks for study. In many cases, some of them are not available.  

I agree entirely with Prof. András Bozsik

Dear Miranda,

Dr. Nizar Matar touches briefly on a most serious problem that is afflicting the learning of many students in the US ... that of having their minds distracted by so many other things in this technological age, especially the so-called glut of social-media, which so many young students seem to have become addicted to. That problem is exacerbated by another problem also touched-upon by Dr.Matar, and that is a compound one wherein the respect-relationship (the discipline) that once was enforced between the student and the instructor has been eroded, and is no longer insisted-upon, nor supported, by the university (or school or college) administrators. This is usually brought-about by threats from parents who threaten to withdraw their students (and thereby financial support) from institutions which enforce too much discipline on their children, who have grown accustomed to a lax system of discipline while growing-up in their homes over the past generation. So the problems that you are experiencing, I believe, began with a relaxation of the (moral) expectations of parents in demanding the respect of their children for themselves (as their primary instructors) and for their elders (within the family), which "discipline" and respect is then (or has been in the past) naturally transferred to the school instructor whenever the child enters school. It is the moral break-down within the families, in this expectation of discipline and respect for (and respectful attention to) elders, even from the earliest childhood, that has brought-about these evil failures-in-the-classroom we now witness.

My best respects,

Bob Skiles

Too many children nowadays, throughout their early childhoods, are being "tutored" more by TVs and social-media contacts via smart-phones and video games, rather than by their grand-parents. They find the information they receive through the social-media and TV so-much-more exciting and titillating than that "old-fashioned stuff" received from grand-mother ... so-much more exciting to discuss the "new" and "cool" and "trendy" and "sexy" things of youth, the things that seem promising and forward-looking, rather than things of the old-and-dying that always seem to look backwards ... that to impulsive youth, so-full-of-energy, seemingly wanting to always seek to hold-them-back, to point-them-in-the-wrong-direction, backwards, towards the graves-of-their-ancestors for dreary lessons that their grand-parents and religious leaders seem to believe can still be applied to life in today's world ... but when you try to explain, patiently, how wisdom is timeless, they scream, "things are DIFFERENT, now, you just don't understand!" Has your grand-child ever screamed at you: "What does Jesus [or Mohammed, or Buddha] say about my iPhone?" So, adaptation to new technology is always a challenge to human societies ... a new devil is loosed among us ... by a powerful conjurer named Steve Jobs, even marked with the powerful icon of original sin, an apple (with the token bite-of-shame), main-lining the new-powerful drug of social-media straight into the brains of your little babes ... so they may be robotized, controlled, homogenized, globalized, commercialized, exploited by the hierarchy of elitist devils, one of their most public figureheads being Rupert Murdoch. Consequently, is it any surprise that many youth grow-up without any respect for their elders, which is a necessary building-block for the discipline of learning? How can a teacher be expected to correct a lifetime of poor-parenting?

Perhaps more administrators and teachers need to acknowledge the changed times and realize that they will receive more-and-more students that cannot be "taught" by the traditional/conventional means, because more-and-more of their students are arriving without having learned how-to-learn ... and either must be discharged from such classes as failures, or the classes' learning expectations re-structured downward to allow even the weakest students to reach them (or assign the weak students to different types of classes especially structured for their "learning disabilities").  OR, perhaps we need to re-think the whole concept of how children are educated. In the technological age of the (not so distant future) why will it be necessary for any child to incur the expense (and increased risk from many things, e.g., accidents, exposure to diseases) to congregate in a schoolroom at some central facility (often having to waste long hours traveling far from home), when a very-highly-qualified instructor can be brought into every home from afar via remote media (and at any time convenient for the family)?

I have never been a friend of government- or church-sponsored religious schools for youth (I believe religious belief and religious training should be something completely left-up to the freedom of determination of the individual family unit, not a community concern [ensuring moral BEHAVIOUR of individuals living within it SHOULD be a community concern]), but even state-and-church-supported-religious-schools, are generally so-much-better, even at-their-worst, than the rampant worship of selfish-narcissistic-materialism our children are being injected with nowadays through those iDevices to which so many seem to spend a majority of their waking hours so raptly devoted [addicted].

Sadly retrospective,

Bob

Perhaps there is more than science in life, perhaps reflected in the natural responses of children to their (education/social) environment? For instance, did science solve versus cause problems (e.g. plastics invading oceans and ecosystems versus plastics improving the quality of a certain style of living)? Perhaps in some conditions it would be Wise not to be a scientist?

And Imaging a world with 100% scientists, i.e. 7 billion scientists? Would you be happy and peaceful?

Dear Dr Nizar, and all, thanks for many wonderful thoughts that describe this Gen Y exactly.  It was around 1995 that we had the multimedia supercorridor in Cyberjaya, very near my home town in Serdang.  All the kids were born in homes and better at networking than their teachers.  They were the net citizens, THE GEN Y, just as Dr Nizar described.  Little self discipline and they were concerned about their entertainment, whereas WE ARE CONCERNED ABOUT OUR EDUCATION AND THEIRS.

Dear Andras and all, indeed we must have our students to do their own learning.  Just this semester, I am the mentor of a particular class.  They did quite well for Biology in the Mid semester test (3.04/4), but they did poorly in Math, Chemistry and Physics.  One good student, Lee, got 4.0, As in every subject, because he works hard.  But many other students admitted they did not work hard.  I asked them HOW CAN YOU WALK INTO AN EXAM HALL WITHOUT PRIOR STUDYING, AND PRACTICING? ( I also asked Lee to give his classmates some help, and I see that he is doing his best to help his friends!)

Students differ in biology/physiology/energy budgets and differ in non-educative environments, and therefore definitely differ in their ability to learn biology and to be able to work so-called more or less 'hard', even in the absence of the internet. This is a basic rule applied to all biology-based organisms and often ignored in education systems?

By the way, I dislike an education system that is mainly based on natural selection processes!

Thanks Bob, for many excellent observations, and taking the trouble to explain in great detail.  Most of my students are Muslim, 90%.  Here, family life is very important, and a lot of time is spent on family occasions, talking and eating.  This could be a factor why Malaysians are overweight and obese.  They don't invest time in studying till the last minute.  They want to get a good grade, so they believe that memorizing is fine.  But even the 15 year olds performed so poorly in PISA, as compared to Singapore students who possess higher order thinking skills.

Dear @Miranda, indifference, apathy, insecurity and discouraging  as well as very low grades from high school are the predominant characteristics of  my students today. Of course, there are exceptions. It is very difficult to help them. They are the image of society.

Professors are asked to lower the criteria for passing the exams.!!! Corruption and bribe are effective, which contributes to low quality outcome of Higher Education in general.

Dear Marcel, in the recent mid semester exam, this batch of  students (2015/2016) did well for Biology.  Some of us had to conduct night classes on Monday nights to help the weak ones that are taught by other teachers.  But they are doing poorly in the other 3 subjects: Math, Physics and Chemistry.  (Only 4 subjects contribute to their CGP.)  Thanks for your answers.

Dear Ljubomir, now I see that lowering standards are not just practiced here.  I refused to pass a few students.  Recently, I made them do and re-do their Microscopy lab until they acquired the necessary skills.

(Recently, my dear neighbor was hospitalized.  She complained to me about the pain that trainee doctors inflicted when they tried to draw blood.  Such people have no right to pass medical exams!  I have said such things to my colleagues at college.)

Knowledge is accumulating fast. What students have to learn today largely exceeds the knowledge available several decades ago. How will future students handle all this, given that the basic brain structures of today do not truly differ from those a couple of thousand years ago?

An evolutionary framework: the brain structures selected in environments in the evolutionary past  handled substantially less information in the evolutionary past? Were brains naturally selected to handle the huge amounts of information to which students are exposed today (besides some exceptions that do not reflect the human population)?

Hard selection: If teachers/leaders or their behaviour would be the outcome of hard selection processes, how can they understand (e.g. via empathy) the feelings and capacities of students/citizens that resulted from other selection processes?

Very good answer @Marcel.  "What students have to learn today largely exceeds the knowledge available several decades ago. How will future students handle all this, given that the basic brain structures of today do not truly differ from those a couple of thousand years ago?"

But did we not hear that normal humans are using less of their brain memory storage?  Here is an interesting link that your answer has sparked in my brain.

"MIT researchers have shown, for the first time ever, that memories are stored in specific brain cells. By triggering a small cluster of neurons, the researchers were able to force the subject to recall a specific memory. By removing these neurons, the subject would lose that memory.

As you can imagine, the trick here is activating individual neurons, which are incredibly small and not really the kind of thing you can attach electrodes to. To do this, the researchers used optogenetics, a bleeding edge sphere of science that involves the genetic manipulation of cells so that they’re sensitive to light. These modified cells are then triggered using lasers; you drill a hole through the subject’s skull and point the laser at a small cluster of neurons."

http://www.extremetech.com/extreme/123485-mit-discovers-the-location-of-memories-individual-neurons

Dear Miranda,

Can you apply all this in normal school environments all over the world?

Dear Dr. Miranda, Dear All,                                                                      I like to add this simple idea as remedial action for students' misconceptions in science. In the lectures, why does not the scholar state "every now & then" a wrong idea and proceeds with it until getting approval about it from the students and then in a "dramatic" show, the scholar indicates that all that has been said is incorrect because of so & so misconception? Diversification of questions in exams is a good idea & here comes the value of multiple choice questions and True/False questions. T/F questions are not allowed in some "downhill" universities although they are superb, if formulated well, in the distinction between the conception & the misconception. In my final exam for the Diploma of Education, in 1976, many questions were T/F and these were prepared by top educators in the UNESCO.

Dear Dr Nizar, thanks for your comments that are always well thought, and full of sense.  Here, I have finished the last lecture today.  My students have a week of study, then they sit for the finals in the following week.

We have 40 MCQs that account for 20%, and a paper of essay and structured questions that is 50%, while the quizzes and practicals provide another 20% and a mid semester test that is 10%.  It's more difficult to set MCQs, and that paper is a closed paper, that we collect back before we collect the answer sheets or OMRs.

There isn't much change since the time when I was studying A levels. But my students are rather poor at English, and generally lazy, compared to students in the past. (It's just that the syllabus has been narrowed; and the whole section on evolution is removed.  They will study that at varsity.)

Dear @Miranda, this is fine link!

Overcoming Misconceptions: Misconceptions as Barriers to Understanding Science!

"Teachers can be astonished to learn that, despite their best efforts, students do not grasp fundamental ideas covered in class. Even some of the best students give the right answers, but are only using correctly-memorized words. When questioned more closely, these students reveal their failure to understand the underlying concepts fully. Students are often able to use algorithms to solve numerical problems without completely understanding the underlying scientific concepts. Mazur (1997) reported that students in his physics class had memorized equations and problem-solving skills, but performed poorly on tests of conceptual understanding. Nakhleh and Mitchell (1993) studied 60 students in an introductory course for chemistry majors. In an exam which paired an algorithmic problem with a conceptual question on the same topic, only 49 percent of those students classified as having high algorithmic ability were able to answer the parallel conceptual question.

 Besides offering students information and helpful examples, we must show them the reasoning processes that lead to algorithms and conceptual generalizations. Inclusion of conceptual questions on tests is another way to emphasize the importance of this aspect of problem solving. In many cases, students have developed partially correct ideas that can be used as the foundation for further learning. However, many students have not developed an appropriate understanding of fundamental concepts from the beginning of their studies, and this shortcoming can interfere with subsequent learning..."

http://www.cirtl.net/node/2628

It's very true, dear @Ljubomir.  

"Many students have not developed an appropriate understanding of fundamental concepts from the beginning of their studies, and this shortcoming can interfere with subsequent learning..."  So many students come in with a very poor grade, many misconceptions, and despite the teacher's hard work, it's almost impossible to improve them.  Our first director, a lady, used to say that we have to change these people into excellent students!  I let students do corrections for practicals, and I give them better marks after that.  But I do NOT add marks to quizzes for no reason.  The marks must reflect their ability!  

THANKS FOR A GREAT LINK:

"Before embracing the concepts held to be correct by the scientific community, students must confront their own beliefs along with their associated paradoxes and limitations, and then attempt to reconstruct the knowledge necessary to understand the scientific model being presented. This process requires that the teacher: 

Short comment about the last valuable contribution of dear Ljubomir Jacić: I have observed the same thing in my students in recent years(and not in the students before that).Talk to the students about the properties of NaOH "sodium hydroxide" and then ask them about the similar properties of KOH "potassium hydroxide" and they go into deep trouble! Any change, in the words in exams that is not as what they memorized, will shock them despite being about the same concept.That led me to label such students as "Memorizing Machines" ! telling them that. 

Dear Dr Nizar, that is very simple transfer of knowledge, and still some students cannot do it.  But the first chapter of the Biology syllabus requires students to know how to draw alpha and beta glucose, to draw formation (and breakdown) of maltose, formation (and breakdown) of dipeptide and polypeptide, triglyceride, and DNA.  But those who are weak at Chemistry will only memorize, and still forget!

Dear Manuel, I have quoted the same section of Ljubomir's link in post 42.

Dear all, I believe that my students do NOT understand the importance of the notional hour, that is the amount of time an average student need to interact with his/her studies in order that the information may be understood.  Some students tend to think that they just have to memorize, and some students don't bother to even read their notes.  Here, I also have tutorial classes, but I remember that in varsity, we don't have tutorials.

Maybe the students are just too lazy to sit for about 5 hours to really understand what was taught in 1 hour of lecture.  Some students even switch off their minds during lectures, and expect the tutorial teacher to teach them everything again.

"Notional learning hours includes all the learning activities that are required to achieve the learning outcomes. Within the SCQF the minimum number of credits recognised for a learning programme is one which represents a notional 10 hours of learning."

http://www.scqf.org.uk/content/files/resources/Notional%20Learning%20Hours.pdf

I believe that misconceptions lead to failure in sciences. So instructors should try to motivate the learner and try as much as possible to arouse their learners' interest in science for then to have a positive mind-set first.

Secondly, knowing that we have individual differences, instructors should also try and vary their methods, strategy among others which they use in teaching. In order to help the learner cope with new concept, learners' previous knowledge should be established before introducing new ones also. that means, instruction should be from known to unknown, simple to complex, concrete to abstract etc.

Language of instruction should not be left behind because communication of instruction matters also. those their mother tongue is English are finding it difficult to deal with science concepts how much more of those it's not their mother tongue. 

Student should understand how to manage their time. every individual has his/her own best time to read and understand.

Most especially, the instructor should master the subject matter and be able to identify the areas and concepts where the learner is having problems with that lead to their misconception in science.

Thanks Manuel, for speaking from experience.  Students will perform if they put in hard work.  Teachers like us can facilitate their learning, but we cannot learn for them, as some have said.  Thanks.

Recently my colleagues and I were teaching EXPRESSION OF BIOLOGICAL INFORMATION to our very weak students, we came up with many simple 'constructivist questions' to help students gain knowledge, bit by bit.  (Have a look at the file that I attach.  Thanks.)

1.       Molecule X provides the information for making specific proteins.  What is A?

2.       Do you think proteins are directly made from Molecule X?

3.       If not, what is Molecule Y and its function?

4.       What is the process by which Molecule Y is synthesized from Molecule X?

5.       Define Process A.

Misconceptions as Barriers to Understanding Science!

"Teachers can be astonished to learn that despite their best efforts, students do not grasp fundamental ideas covered in class. Even some of the best students give the right answers but are only using correctly memorized words. When questioned more closely, these students reveal their failure to understand fully the underlying concepts. Students are often able to use algorithms to solve numerical problems without completely understanding the underlying scientific concept...

Besides offering students information and helpful examples, we must show them the reasoning processes that lead to algorithms and conceptual generalizations. Inclusion of conceptual questions on tests is another way to emphasize the importance of this aspect of problem solving..."

http://www.nap.edu/read/5287/chapter/5

Wonderful link dear Ljubomir.  I will be back on QA soon.  Lots of work that needs full concentration, all my focus and good sense.  From mobile.

I think that the constructivist approach is the best method for recognizing and correcting wrong concepts among students, and the best model is the Posner's model.