ASE Annual Conference 2018

Children (and indeed adults, as we may well prove during the session) like to be right, and children’s progress with conceptual understanding in science is often hindered by an unwillingness to change their minds. The tendency to hold on to scientifically incorrect ideas, even when they have been shown otherwise, is very strong (Johnston, 2014).
This workshop will explore practical strategies for helping children be comfortable with the idea of being ‘wrong’, and to be confident to change their minds. It will suggest that teachers should be happy with children’s ideas sometimes being scientifically incorrect.
It will demonstrate how linking an idea with evidence enables children to propose a range of possible ideas that may or may not be correct, but have value because they are linked to a piece of established evidence. Working in this way also helps children manage uncertainty and recognise that science is not black and white, and cannot always explain everything.