Letter to the Editor Re: Misconceptions Are “So Yesterday!”

Maskiewicz and Lineback (2013) have written a provocative essay about how the term misconceptions is used in biology education and the learning sciences in general. Their histor-ical perspective highlights the logic and utility of the con-structivist theory of learning. They emphasize that students’ preliminary ideas are resources to be built upon, not errors to be eradicated. Furthermore, Maskiewicz and Lineback argue that the term misconception has been largely aban-doned by educational researchers, because it is not consis-tent with constructivist theory. Instead, they conclude, mem-bers of the biology education community should speak of preconceptions, naı̈ve conceptions, commonsense conceptions, or alternative conceptions. We respectfully disagree. Our objections encompass both the semantics of the term misconception and the more general issue of constructivist theory and practice. We now address each of these in turn. (For additional discussion, please se