Analogies and examples from students' experience are frequently cited as important to teaching conceptual material. However, little research has been done concerning the best use of concrete examples in attempts to remediate misconceptions. This study was conducted in order to explore the effects of an experimental analogical teaching method which uses a connected sequence of "bridging" analogies, compared with a more standard teaching-by-example technique. Both methods encouraged students to become actively involved. In both cases the target concept involved the common misconception that static objects are unable to exert forces.
In two studies, an interviewing and a written instrument study, a total of 130 students interacted with a written explanation employing either the experimental or the more standard teaching technique. The control students worked through a description of Newton's third law based on a passage in a popular high school textbook and were given an explanation of how the law applies to the simple new example of a table pushing up on a book resting on the table. A number of the control students simply refused to believe this explanation.
In addition to significant differences between student performance on post questions in favor of the experimental technique, qualitative analyses of student reasoning while interacting with the explanations indicated some important implications for instruction. In order for students to make sense of situations for which they have a misconception, they must draw on and extend existing helpful intuitions rather than simply memorizing counter-intuitive principles. To help students in this constructive effort, first, teachers need to be aware that certain examples they themselves find compelling may not be at all illuminating for the student. Second, even when an example has been found that is compelling to the student, it may not be seen as analogous to the target problem in the lesson, and the analogy relation may need to be developed explicitly. Finally, teachers need to keep in mind the goal of helping students develop visualizable, qualitative, mechanistic models of physical phenomena.
