Conceptual bridging and cognitive conflict

Conceptual bridging helps students take an already understood concept and then go through several steps in which that concept is extended until they see how to apply it to a new situation.

Example: take the concept of springiness, use a series of increasingly stiff materials, until they see that this could explain the origin of the Normal force from macroscopically ridged objects.

Cognitive conflict addresses common misconceptions. Students are presented a situation and asked to predict what will happen, and students holding the target misconception will predict incorrectly. When the result of the experiment disagree with the prediction, they will recognize the need to re-think their understanding of the situation.

Example: Students are given a light ball and a heavy ball and asked to predict which will hit the ground first, or whether they will hit the ground at the same time. When they hit at about the same time, those predicting the heavier ball will have to re-assess their reasoning.