The perceived difficulty of content matter in geography tuition as a factor determining the origin of misconceptions

Abstract

The study deals with the pupils’ and teachers’ perception of the geography content matter difficulty as a factor determining the origin of misconceptions. We assumed that the incidence of misconceptions will be higher with an increasing perceived difficulty of the content. The first part of the study examines the perceived difficulty of geographical topics by pupils and teachers. The second part is a didactic test verifying the occurrence of misconceptions on topics selected on the basis of perceived difficulty. The results indicate that students perceive the difficulty more “realistically” in line with the assumption that they will solve easy questions with greater success. Teachers’ estimates correspond to the occurrence of expected misconceptions. The study also noted differences in the perception of difficulty in the topics of physical and social geography. The present study underlines the importance of constructivist approaches in working with misconceptions in school.