Information Technology Reference
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easily detected by conventional tests and other traditional assessment methods (see
Chap. 10). More specifically, educators must be aware of their learners' ways of
thinking and mental processes, must gain skills for uncovering alternative concep-
tions, and must recognize and use pedagogical tools to deal with these conceptions.
In this spirit, knowledge of learners and their characteristics is one of Shulman's
( 1986 ) seven categories of the teacher knowledge base model.
Novice computer science educators, however, face difficulties in gaining the no-
tion of alternative conceptions. Specifically, they face difficulties in:
1. Understanding how people do not understand topics which they conceive as triv-
ial ones;
2. Lowering their level of understanding to that of a novice learner since their
understanding of the subject area is usually more advanced;
3. “Getting into the head” of someone else (not just a pupil) because they have not
yet the experience needed for performing such tasks.
These difficulties can be explained by Fuller's ( 1973 ) model, which distinguishes
between three developmental stages of teacher experience: the self stage, the task
stage, and the impact stage. While experienced teachers are usually at the third
stage, and are concerned with issues related to their pupils , concentrating on what
their pupils think, feel, and understand, novice teachers are mainly in the first (self)
stage, dealing mainly with survival issues, such as how to keep their classes silent,
how to complete teaching the curriculum on time, and how to make sure that they
will be able to answer correctly their pupils' questions. Fuller found that the tran-
sition from the personal-centered stage to the pupil-centered stage is a function
of experience; the more experienced a teacher is, a better chance exists for him
or her to release themselves from survival issues and to concentrate on his or her
pupils' thinking and behavior. Bents and Bents ( 1990 ) also recognize the transition
from being a novice teacher to an expert teacher by replacing the attention given to
teacher-centered issues to pupil-centered issues.
In order to prepare prospective computer science teachers toward the transition
to the third stage, it is important to focus on learners' conceptions in the MTCS
course. Within this context, one of the main messages that should be delivered
to the students is that a learning opportunity exists in every pupil's mistake (or
misunderstanding). However, in order to exhaust the pupil's learning abilities, it
is necessary first, to understand the pupil's alternative conception and its source,
and then, to use appropriate pedagogical tools to assist him or her improving their
understanding.
It is important to remember, though, that it is impossible to prepare prospective
computer science teachers for all the situations they will face in the future. There-
fore, with respect to dealing with learners' alternative conceptions, the practical
goals of the MTCS course are to increase the students' awareness with respect to:
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