1. Eliciting students' prior knowledge about the topic to be taught is the optimum starting point for a lesson.

2. Presenting familiar phenomena that illustrate the topic to be understood can help stimulate recall of prior knowledge.

3. It is valuable for the teacher to identify among students' prior knowledge those anchoring conceptions upon which the current lesson can build.

4. It is equally valuable for the teacher to identify among students' prior knowledge persistent alternative conceptions (naive conceptions, misconceptions) that impede learning and need to be specifically challenged in the context of the lesson.