Pedagogy Misconceptions
As we begin our summer, many of us reflect and perhaps begin to ponder designing our future courses. I would like to share a recent (2021) article on "The Morass of Misconceptions: How Unjustified Beliefs Influence Pedagogy and Learning" by McAfee and Hoffman. In this, the authors share the background of misconceptions and several common misconceptions that we may make while teaching and learning. They provide a list with associated research, some of which include (remember these are "MISconceptions, so not true):
Teachers should tailor their instruction to accommodate their students’ different types of intelligence.
There is a correlation between brain size and intelligence.
One can improve their cognitive abilities by playing brain training games such as Brain Gym®.
Human beings think most clearly when they are under pressure.
New generation of learners inherently know how to learn from developing technologies and media and old methods of instruction do not work for them.
Repeated exposure to the same information, also known as rote learning, improves learning.
Students will learn material better if instruction is presented to students in their preferred learning style.
It is important that a person acquires their native language before attempting to learn a second language, otherwise neither language will be learned.
Males and females have fundamentally different brains and therefore do not learn in the same ways.
People are either left-brained and analytical or right-brained and creative.
Adults cannot memorize information as easily as children can.
People are capable of effectively multitasking without a loss of concentration or loss of accuracy.
Perhaps the best use of this list to keep the items in mind as you design/teach your courses in the future.
References
McAfee, M. & Hoffman, B. (2021). The morass of misconceptions: How unjustified beliefs influence pedagogy and learning. International Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning. 15(1), Article 4.
