Chapter 1: A Review of the Research on Student Conceptions in Mathematics, Science, and Programming

Jere Confrey

Since the time of Piaget, researchers have been keenly interested in how students view the concepts of science, mathematics, and, more recently, programming. In their annual review of research in science education, Shymansky and Kyle (1988) mention nearly 100 studies on student conceptions since 1984; Pfundt and Duit (1985, 1988) have amassed a bibliography of 1,500 citations in science education alone. Review articles (Driver & Easley, 1978; Driver & Erickson, 1983; Eylon & Linn, 1988; Fisher & Lipson, 1983; Wittrock, 1977) report similarly high levels of activity. In mathematics A. Graeber and M. Johnson (personal communication, May 1989) report collecting over 600 articles on student misconceptions, and in biology Mintzes and Arnaudin (1984) report on 68 studies. Reviews on probability (Hawkins & Kapadia, 1984), statistics (Well, Pollatsek, Konold, & Hardiman, 1984), and programming (Pea, Soloway, & Spohrer, 1987) confirm the evidence of vigorous research activity. At two international conferences at Cornell University (Helm & Novak, 1983; Novak, 1987), researchers gathered from many countries to report on studies in this area. Given the sheer numbers of studies, an exhaustive review of student conceptions literature is prohibitive; however, these studies show evidence of reemerging themes, issues, and findings that provide a framework for this article.