The typology of learning impediments is intended as a diagnostic tool for thinking about where science learning 'goes wrong'. It is a model of the different types of 'learning bugs' that may occur when our teaching does link to students' thinking in the ways we intend.
One category of substantive learning impediment is a grounded learning impediments. Substantive Learning Impediments occur where learning does not match the intended learning because the student interprets teaching in terms of existing ideas in a different way to intended. Grounded learning impediments occur because existing understanding (prior learning) is inconsistent with accepted scientific thinking.
Possible examples
Could these be examples of grounded learning impediments?
Gas particles like to have a lot of space, so they can expand (An intuitive learning impediment)
Iodine's got a larger force that lithium, so it will pull towards the lithium more (An intuitive learning impediment)
Iron is too heavy to evaporate (An intuitive learning impediment)
Light is actively bounced out of the eye towards objects so we can see (An intuitive learning impediment)
Some crazy thing about a neutron turning into a proton or something (An intuitive learning impediment)
The sharing-out of nuclear charge (An intuitive learning impediment)
Fuels get used-up when we burn them (A life-world learning impediment)
A protein is something which is used for growth and repair (A pedagogical learning impediment)
An element needs a certain amount of electrons in the outer shell (A pedagogical learning impediment)
Current only slows down at the resistor - by analogy with water flow (A pedagogical learning impediment)
In a sponge, the particles are spread out more, so it can absorb more water (A pedagogical learning impediment)
Sharing the same shell and electron makes them more joined together like one (A pedagogical learning impediment)
Thicker light bends more than thin light (A pedagogical learning impediment)
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Dr Keith S Taber kst24@cam.ac.uk
University of Cambridge Faculty of Education
© Keith S Taber