Students' Misconceptions about Diffusion: How Can They Be Eliminated?

Surveys have found that most high school and some first-year college biology students do not understand diffusion. A research project took two high school biology classes taught by the same teacher and varied the teaching method to determine how to prevent misunderstandings about diffusion. The clas...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The American biology teacher 1994-02, Vol.56 (2), p.74-77
Main Authors: Marek, Edmund A., Cowan, Connie Cruse, Cavallo, Ann M. L.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Biology
Diffusion
Diffusion (Physics)
Dyes
High school students
High schools
Methods
Misconception
Osmosis
Science learning
Science teachers
Study and teaching
Teacher organizations
Teachers
Teaching
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Summary:Surveys have found that most high school and some first-year college biology students do not understand diffusion. A research project took two high school biology classes taught by the same teacher and varied the teaching method to determine how to prevent misunderstandings about diffusion. The class taught by the learning cycle method which requires students to make connections between ideas and facts resulted in 94% understanding diffusion. Only 58% of students in the class taught by the expository method understood diffusion. All students had some misunderstandings before the project.
ISSN:0002-7685
1938-4211
DOI:10.2307/4449757