Seminars on this topic were held at Cornell University in 1983 and 1987, with 118 participants and 55 papers presented in 1983, and 367 participants from 26 countries and 177 papers presented in 1987. This reflects, in part, the growing worldwide interest in research to better understand the problems of student (and teacher) misconceptions, and educational strategies to address the problems, In the six years our last seminar, much new work has been done and interest in the topic by researchers and teachers has increased. The proposed seminar will include some 150-200 papers presented in parallel sessions and four late afternoon plenary sessions dealing with: (1) definition and understanding of misconceptions (or alterative conceptions); (2) epistemological issues underlying the remediation of conceptions; (3) metacognitive strategies to facilitate overcoming misconceptions; and (4) teacher education considerations and teaching strategies to deal with misconceptions. Funding is requested for honoraria, travel, and per diem for four plenary session leaders (who will also prepare summary reports), for hourly clerical and student support, and to partially fund production of the Proceedings. We expect the Seminar Proceedings will be available within 60 days (as for previous seminars) in both print and electronic forms.
