Dealing With Misconceptions: A Teaching Experiment for the Development of Pre-service Teachers' Knowledge

Abstract Misconceptions play a significant role in affecting the learning process in mathematics education. This study aims to examine the knowledge and experiences of pre-service middle school mathematics teachers on transforming misconceptions through micro-teaching and peer evaluations. Designed as a teaching experiment, the study was completed in 14 weeks with the participation of 65 senior pre-service middle school mathematics teachers. The research consisted of teaching sessions about misconceptions, conducting a literature review in the specified learning areas by pre-service teachers (PSTs) and developing activities that are based on the opportunities that errors provide for conceptual development and aim to transform misconceptions, and implementing these activities through micro-teaching with classmates. This process was completed by evaluating each activity with 10 items by the researcher, the PSTs, and the field experts. When examining PSTs’ evaluations, it was found that the PSTs developed positive dispositions towards dealing with misconceptions through their experiences as a result of the teaching experiment. Moreover, the reflection reports showed that the PSTs identified whether the activity allowed for cognitive conflict as the main criterion in evaluating the activity’s potential to transform misconceptions.