These studies point to the need for students and teachers to understand how mental models are constructed. Here are a few ways to start students thinking about how they think. Drawing often reveals hidden assumptions. Ask your students to draw a picture that accurately represents the food web in your schoolyard, for example, and invite them to examine the drawings. The Big Upset.
Science progresses when better mental models come along and upset cherished perceptions.
Instead of assigning a paper on, say, the solar system, challenge students to write about a change in our idea of the solar system, and point them to material on Nicolaus Copernicus, Johannes Kepler, or another revolutionary. By becoming aware of how other people construct mental models, students learn to see their own thought patterns in a new light. Challenge students to discuss not only the ideas of their peers, but how their peers arrived at those ideas. Direct observation and experiment is perhaps the most powerful way to change mental models. The process of forming predictions puts assumptions on the table.