Hispanic and Anglo Students' Misconceptions in Mathematics. Next it considers common mathematical misconceptions among Anglos and Hispanics. It concludes with a discussion of techniques to help students overcome their misconceptions in math. Instead, they come with theories constructed from their everyday experiences. They have actively constructed these theories, an activity crucial to all successful learning.
Misconceptions are a problem for two reasons.
First, they interfere with learning when students use them to interpret new experiences. Second, students are emotionally and intellectually attached to their misconceptions, because they have actively constructed them. Hence, students give up their misconceptions, which can have such a harmful effect on learning, only with great reluctance. They show teachers that their students almost always come to class with complex ideas about the subject at hand. In fact, students who overcome a misconception after ordinary instruction often return to it only a short time later.