| name | misconception |
| description | Return the most common student misconceptions for a specific topic, grade, and subject. Use this when a teacher says 'what do students get wrong about fractions?' or when lesson-planner or assessment-designer needs to proactively address misconceptions in activities or distractors. Do NOT use for generating content — just returns a misconception list. Do NOT use for diagnosing an individual student's misunderstanding. |
misconception
Returns a short list (2–5) of documented common student misconceptions for a topic, with a brief note on why each occurs and how instruction can address it. Used to seed distractor analysis in atom-assessment-item and to inform activity design in atom-activity-generate.
Input
{
"topic": "fractions greater than one",
"grade": "4",
"subject": "Math",
"standard_code": "MA.4.FR.1.1"
}
Output
{
"tool": "misconception",
"topic": "fractions greater than one",
"grade": "4",
"misconceptions": [
{
"misconception": "A fraction must be less than 1 (the numerator must always be smaller than the denominator).",
"why_it_occurs": "Students over-generalize early fraction instruction where all examples show proper fractions.",
"instructional_remedy": "Show number lines extending past 1; use real-world examples (1¼ pizzas, 5/4 cups of water)."
},
{
"misconception": "The fraction 7/4 is the same as 7 ÷ 4 ≈ 1.something unrelated to fractions.",
"why_it_occurs": "Confusion between fraction notation and division algorithm taught separately.",
"instructional_remedy": "Connect fraction-as-division explicitly; show 7/4 on a number line alongside the division result."
}
],
"sources": ["FL B.E.S.T. vertical progression", "NCTM misconception research (model-inferred)"],
"human_review_required": true,
"note": "Misconceptions are model-inferred from common research patterns — verify against current curriculum resources."
}
Do NOT use this atom for
- Diagnosing a specific student's errors (use intervention-mtss)
- Generating assessment items or activities (pass this output to atom-assessment-item or atom-activity-generate)
Pipeline note
Follows references/method.md at the Analysis step (pre-Generation). Output conforms to protocol-layer/metadata-schema.md. Pre-Generation step. human_review_required: true — misconceptions are research-based but model-inferred; teacher should verify against district curriculum materials.
