This paper reports on a study of pedagogical strategies for promoting conceptual understanding by reducing misconceptions. The case chosen to investigate this phenomenon involved 40 Thai vocational education students studying physics (electric circuits) in secondary school. The study investigated the effect of an explaining strategy on students' understanding. It also investigated the effect of an enacting strategy on students' overall misconceptions with one group (n=20) using an electric circuits board (CB) whilst another group (n=20) used a virtual simulation (VS) of electric circuits. Pre-and post-test results showed significant improvements in understanding. Pre- and post-test results for the 'enacting' strategy comparing the virtual simulation versus the electric circuits board showed significant increases within groups, as well as a significant reduction in misunderstanding for the VS group. However, the overall levels of misunderstanding remained high in spite of the significance of the intervention. This result confirms the characterisation of misconceptions as persistent difficulties. Implications point to the value of combining multiple strategies for conceptual understanding, matching strategies to the context and to the limitations of evaluating conceptual understanding.