While a vast body of research has identified difficulties in students' understanding about forces and acceleration and their related alternative conceptions, far less research suggests ways to use students' alternative conceptions to enhance conceptual understanding of a specific fundamental concept. This study focused on distinguishing between…

Research into teacher thinking offers potential insights into ways of promoting better teaching. A recent qualitative study explored the views about physics, and learning and teaching physics of a group of teachers whose classroom practice was "traditional" and a group who used conceptual change teaching approaches. This paper focuses on the views…

Physics teachers' approaches to teaching physics are generally considered to be linked to their views about physics. In this qualitative study, the views about physics held by a group of physics teachers whose teaching practice was traditional were explored and compared with the views held by physics teachers who used conceptual change approaches.…

This study investigates the ideas and beliefs of a small group of high school science teachers about student observations in the science classroom. Student views on science classroom observations have been previously reported on, but teachers and their students' ideas about observation is a very little researched area in science education. There…

Examines ways in which knowledge might be captured, articulated, and portrayed to others. Develops an approach to articulation and portrayal based on what is called the CoRe (Content Representation), which represents the particular content/topic of the science teaching, and PaP-eRs (Pedagogical and Professional experience Repertoire), which…

Reports on how science teachers might work to improve their students' use of science process skills in ways that will contribute to their meaningful learning during laboratory activities. (Author/WRM)

Explores different ways individuals conceptualize quality learning in physics. Uses semi-structured interviews that explore aspects of learning that respondents regard as worth fostering in their classrooms. Discusses different respondent conceptions with regard to four significant aspects of physics learning: doing experimental work; linking…

Describes a unit of laboratory work which was unusual in that the teacher's purpose was to develop students' understanding of the way scientific facts are established with little expectation that they would understand the science content involved in the experiments. The unit was very successful from both a cognitive and affective perspective.…