Aleknavičiūtė, Vesta, Erno Lehtinen, and Ilona Södervik. “Thirty years of conceptual change research in biology–A review and meta-analysis of intervention studies.” Educational Research Review 41 (2023): 100556.
This systematic review and meta-analysis examines three decades of research into conceptual change interventions within biology education. The authors investigate how various instructional strategies, such as refutational texts and hands-on activities, help students overcome deeply ingrained misconceptions about complex topics like evolution and photosynthesis. By synthesising data from numerous studies, the report evaluates the effectiveness of these interventions across different educational levels, from kindergarten to university. The findings suggest that while these methods generally produce large positive effects on understanding, many studies still focus on knowledge enrichment rather than the more difficult process of knowledge restructuring. Ultimately, the source serves as a guide for educators and researchers to improve instructional design and address the challenges of teaching counterintuitive scientific phenomena.