Scientific misconceptions are commonly held beliefs about science that have no basis in actual scientific fact. Scientific misconceptions can also refer to preconceived notions based on religious and/or cultural influences. Many scientific misconceptions occur because of faulty teaching styles and the sometimes distancing nature of true scientific texts. Because students' prior knowledge and misconceptions are important factors for learning science, science teachers should be able to identify and address these conceptions. Types Misconceptions (a.k.a. alternative conceptions, alternative frameworks, etc.) are a key issue from constructivism in science education, a major theoretical perspective informing science teaching. In general, scientific misconceptions have their foundations in a few "intuitive knowledge domains, including folkmechanics (object boundaries and movements), folkbiology (biological species' configurations and relationships), and folkpsychology (interactive agents and goal-directed behavior)", that enable humans to interact effectively with the world in which they evolved. That these folksciences do not map accurately onto modern scientific theory is not unexpected. A second major source of scientific misconceptions are didaskalogenic misconceptions, which are induced and reinforced during the course of instruction (in formal education). There has been extensive research into students' informal ideas about science topics, and studies have suggested reported misconceptions vary considerably in terms of properties such as coherence, stability, context-dependence, range of application etc. Misconceptions can be broken down into five basic categories: preconceived notions nonscientific beliefs conceptual misunderstandings vernacular misconceptions factual misconceptions Preconceived notions are thinking about a concept in only one way. Specially heat, gravity, and energy. Once a person knows how something works it is difficult to imagine it working a different way. Nonscientific beliefs are beliefs learned outside of scientific evidence. For example, one's beliefs about the history of world based on the bible. Conceptual misunderstandings are ideas about what one thinks they understand based on their personal experiences or what they may have heard. One does not fully grasp the concept and understand it. Vernacular misconceptions happen when one word has two completely different meanings, specially in regard to science and everyday life. Factual misconceptions are ideas or beliefs that are learned at a young age but are actually incorrect. While most student misconceptions go unrecognized, there has been an informal effort to identify errors and misconceptions present in textbooks. Identifying student misconceptions In the context of Socratic instruction, student misconceptions are identified and addressed through a process of questioning and listening. A number of strategies have been employed