Cargando…
Misconceptions in Physics Explainer Videos and the Illusion of Understanding: an Experimental Study
Some of the online explainer videos for physics present misconceptions as scientifically correct explanations. Even so, some of these videos achieve good ratings on online platforms. A possible reason is that explainer videos with misconceptions foster an “illusion of understanding”—the mistaken bel...
Autores principales: | , |
---|---|
Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Springer Nature Singapore
2022
|
Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8932681/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35342380 http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10763-022-10265-7 |
_version_ | 1784671490158886912 |
---|---|
author | Kulgemeyer, Christoph Wittwer, Jörg |
author_facet | Kulgemeyer, Christoph Wittwer, Jörg |
author_sort | Kulgemeyer, Christoph |
collection | PubMed |
description | Some of the online explainer videos for physics present misconceptions as scientifically correct explanations. Even so, some of these videos achieve good ratings on online platforms. A possible reason is that explainer videos with misconceptions foster an “illusion of understanding”—the mistaken belief that a topic has been understood. Misconceptions close to everyday experiences might appear more attractive than scientifically correct explanations. This experimental study (N = 149 physics learners with a low prior knowledge on average, sample of convenience) was conducted to explore this effect. Two explainer videos were developed to be comparable in terms of comprehensibility and duration. The explanatory approach was the only difference between the two videos. While the experimental group watched a video introducing the concept of force using misconceptions, the control group watched a scientifically correct video. Learners from the experimental group developed an equal belief of understanding, but more misconceptions and fewer scientifically correct conceptions than those from the control group. We argue that this illusion of understanding might become problematic (a) in physics instruction because students who have watched a misleading video might regard further teaching in school as irrelevant, and (b) learners might tend to rate videos including misconceptions better on an online platform like YouTube. Future studies should examine these two possible consequences. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-8932681 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2022 |
publisher | Springer Nature Singapore |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-89326812022-03-21 Misconceptions in Physics Explainer Videos and the Illusion of Understanding: an Experimental Study Kulgemeyer, Christoph Wittwer, Jörg Int J Sci Math Educ Article Some of the online explainer videos for physics present misconceptions as scientifically correct explanations. Even so, some of these videos achieve good ratings on online platforms. A possible reason is that explainer videos with misconceptions foster an “illusion of understanding”—the mistaken belief that a topic has been understood. Misconceptions close to everyday experiences might appear more attractive than scientifically correct explanations. This experimental study (N = 149 physics learners with a low prior knowledge on average, sample of convenience) was conducted to explore this effect. Two explainer videos were developed to be comparable in terms of comprehensibility and duration. The explanatory approach was the only difference between the two videos. While the experimental group watched a video introducing the concept of force using misconceptions, the control group watched a scientifically correct video. Learners from the experimental group developed an equal belief of understanding, but more misconceptions and fewer scientifically correct conceptions than those from the control group. We argue that this illusion of understanding might become problematic (a) in physics instruction because students who have watched a misleading video might regard further teaching in school as irrelevant, and (b) learners might tend to rate videos including misconceptions better on an online platform like YouTube. Future studies should examine these two possible consequences. Springer Nature Singapore 2022-03-18 2023 /pmc/articles/PMC8932681/ /pubmed/35342380 http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10763-022-10265-7 Text en © The Author(s) 2022 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Open AccessThis article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) . |
spellingShingle | Article Kulgemeyer, Christoph Wittwer, Jörg Misconceptions in Physics Explainer Videos and the Illusion of Understanding: an Experimental Study |
title | Misconceptions in Physics Explainer Videos and the Illusion of Understanding: an Experimental Study |
title_full | Misconceptions in Physics Explainer Videos and the Illusion of Understanding: an Experimental Study |
title_fullStr | Misconceptions in Physics Explainer Videos and the Illusion of Understanding: an Experimental Study |
title_full_unstemmed | Misconceptions in Physics Explainer Videos and the Illusion of Understanding: an Experimental Study |
title_short | Misconceptions in Physics Explainer Videos and the Illusion of Understanding: an Experimental Study |
title_sort | misconceptions in physics explainer videos and the illusion of understanding: an experimental study |
topic | Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8932681/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35342380 http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10763-022-10265-7 |
work_keys_str_mv | AT kulgemeyerchristoph misconceptionsinphysicsexplainervideosandtheillusionofunderstandinganexperimentalstudy AT wittwerjorg misconceptionsinphysicsexplainervideosandtheillusionofunderstandinganexperimentalstudy |