My Misconceptions

Children have many misconceptions when growing up and for some it can take years for a misunderstanding to be broken. Misconceptions are generally formed from the nature of the child’s environment. At an early age, children start school with a cultured understanding on how the world works, whether their beliefs are true or not (Donovan et al., 1999). For teachers it is in their best interest to teach factual knowledge, conceptual framework and facilitate application to break these misconceptions (Donovan et al., 1999). In this paper I will be discussing my personal misconception when I was a child, the factors that contributed to these thoughts and how this misunderstanding was changed.

In my early school days, I remember trying to be very

I was one of the younger children, as I had about five older cousins that I spent most of my time with. My parents and grandparent would reiterate the idea that my older cousins are ‘wise role models’ and I should be following in their footsteps, listen to their instructions and obey their rules when out with them and consequences would follow if I didn’t listen. This behavioural perspective was determined for me in my early years, as the five older cousins were in charge of me and my two younger cousins on various occasions (G.Atlport, 1935). Each summer my cousins and I would take a trip into take to spend all our money on an abundance of odd candies we couldn’t normally get at home. One summer when I was about seven years old, my cousins and I arrive at the candy shop and my influential older and ‘cooler’ cousins convinced me into buying “pop rocks” hard candy. Something I had never tried before, but they had me soon believe this was the best candy in the entire shop. I buy a couple packs, along with a few other candies and we drove home and sat by the fire munching. When I pour the pop rocks into my mouth, I am confused at the popping sensation that is created on my tongue. It was only a few minutes before my oldest cousin screams out

He goes into depth about how a child’s cultural or social environment shapes their cognitive development (Woolfolk et al., 2016). He clarifies that children often develop cognitive skills through the interactions with others in the community or members of the society. He describes that children’s thought processes, including problem-solving skills, are co-constructed during social activities, then the new information is internalized by the individual and soon it becomes part of the child’s cognitive development (Woolfolk et al., 2016). When my cousins had me believe that the candy pop rocks would blow up my stomach if swallowed, my cognitive perspective altered as I made accommodations for this new information. A psychodynamic and behavioural perspective was developed as I believed everything my cousins would tell me, and I thought they knew everything due to their many years of experiences and the parental reference I was given (G.Atlport, 1935). My behaviour was shaped by the nature of my environment, and I unconsciously acted like my older and “cooler”