Browsing by Subject "Misconceptions"
Now showing 1 - 3 of 3
Results Per Page
Sort Options
Item Developing a Concept Inventory and Active Learning for Common Computer Security Misconceptions(2021-01) Geraci, BrandonCybersecurity incidents are on the rise. Tracing these security breaches back, we linked them to people making an error due to a commonsense misconception. There is no one standard tool that gauges a student's understanding of security topics. In this research, we surveyed 75 security experts about security novices' misconceptions, coded the results, and identified 17 top misconceptions. We created open-ended questions and labs/active learning to identify and remediate those misconceptions. After revising the open-ended questions, we gave them to undergraduate students and successfully extracted real-world instances of the misconceptions in practice. We created a ten-question multiple-choice exam by converting the open-ended questions into multiple-choice with many distractors drawn from students' misconceptions. We then conducted "think-aloud interviews" with students to make sure that the questions were clear. After integrating their feedback, we administered multiple-choice exams to two groups of students; 114 CS 1 students with no formal security education and 28 students from a security course. Almost 30% of CS 1 students failed to answer more than one question correctly, and only 3.5% of CS 1 students passed with a score of 60 (a D-). However, only 21.4% of the security students passed, and no individual student got more than seven out of ten correct. Our results show that both groups of students have these common security misconceptions. While security students earned markedly higher scores, our test unequivocally shows that students are leaving the security course retaining significant misconceptions, pointing the way for improvements in teaching.Item Reconstructing Student Conceptions of Climate Change; An Inquiry Approach(2015-08) McClelland, JAbstract No other environmental issue today has as much potential to alter life on Earth as does global climate change. Scientific evidence continues to grow; indicating that climate change is occurring now, and that change is a result of human activities (National Research Council [NRC], 2010). The need for climate literacy in society has become increasingly urgent. Unfortunately, understanding the concepts necessary for climate literacy remains a challenge for most individuals. A growing research base has identified a number of common misconceptions people have about climate literacy concepts (Leiserowitz, Smith, & Marlon 2011; Shepardson, Niyogi, Choi, & Charusombat, 2009). However, few have explored this understanding in high school students. This sequential mixed methods study explored the changing conceptions of global climate change in 90 sophomore biology students through the course of their participation in an eight-week inquiry-based global climate change unit. The study also explored changes in students' attitudes over the course of the study unit, contemplating possible relationships between students' conceptual understanding of and attitudes toward global climate change. Phase I of the mixed methods study included quantitative analysis of pre-post content knowledge and attitude assessment data. Content knowledge gains were statistically significant and over 25% of students in the study shifted from an expressed belief of denial or uncertainty about global warming to one of belief in it. Phase II used an inductive approach to explore student attitudes and conceptions. Conceptually, very few students grew to a scientifically accurate understanding of the greenhouse effect or the relationship between global warming and climate change. However, they generally made progress in their conceptual understanding by adding more specific detail to explain their understanding. Phase III employed a case study approach with eight purposefully selected student cases, identifying five common conceptual and five common attitudebased themes. Findings suggest similar misconceptions revealed in prior research also occurred in this study group. Some examples include; connecting global warming to the hole in the ozone layer, and falsely linking unrelated environmental issues like littering to climate change. Data about students' conceptual understanding of energy may also have implications for education research curriculum development. Similar to Driver & While no statistical relationship between students' attitudes about global climate change and overall conceptual understanding emerged, some data suggested that climate change skeptics may perceive the concept of evidence differently than non-skeptics. One-way ANOVA data comparing skeptics with other students on evidence-based assessment items was significant. This study offers insights to teachers of potential barriers students face when trying to conceptualize global climate change concepts. More importantly it reinforces the idea that students generally find value in learning about global climate change in the classroom.Item Revising Misconceptions Using Multiple Documents(2020-07) Butterfuss, ReeseIn the “information age,” readers encounter information about socio-scientific issues repeatedly from multiple documents and sources. In turn, this information found across multiple sources may reactivate and strengthen inaccurate prior knowledge or misconceptions. Much existing theoretical and empirical work has examined how readers represent and process multiple documents and sources. Likewise, existing work has also provided an understanding of the conditions that promote the revision of preexisting misconceptions (i.e., knowledge revision) during reading. However, currently lacking is an understanding of how knowledge revision unfolds when readers engage with multiple documents from different sources. To address this gap, I present a new theoretical account that integrates key representational and processing aspects from existing accounts of multiple-document comprehension and sourcing to expand our current understanding of knowledge revision to account for multiple documents and sources (i.e., the Knowledge Revision Components Framework – Multiple Documents; KReC-MD). In a set of two experiments, I tested core hypotheses derived from KReC-MD regarding the influence of text structure, source credibility, and intertextual integration on knowledge revision. In Experiment 1, readers engaged with a set of three documents addressing misconceptions related to genetically modified organisms (GMOs) that varied in text structure (refutation vs. non-refutation) and source credibility (high vs. low). Readers demonstrated superior intertextual integration after engaging with refutation texts, as well as high-credibility sources. In turn, readers who engaged in more intertextual integration demonstrated superior knowledge revision outcomes. In addition to examining knowledge revision outcomes, it was also critical to examine the processes that readers engage in moment-by-moment during reading. Thus, in Experiment 2, I used a typed think-aloud methodology to examine the integration, sourcing, and knowledge revision processes readers engaged in during reading of refutation texts from either high- or low-credibility sources. Readers engaged in more source evaluations in the low-credibility condition, yet they demonstrated superior intertextual integration and knowledge revision in the high-credibility condition. Thus, readers may have engaged in more evaluation of low-credibility sources as a means of subsequently rejecting information from those sources. These results are discussed in light of existing research regarding multiple-document comprehension and sourcing, and critically, are used to refine the initial proposal of KReC-MD and inform future work.