Given the widespread acceptance of pseudoscientific and paranormal beliefs, this article suggests that science educators need to seriously consider the problem of how these beliefs can be combated. Proposes teaching science students to critically evaluate the claims of pseudoscience and the paranormal. (LZ)

Reports that many students do not believe Newton's law of action and reaction and suggests ways in which its plausibility might be enhanced. Reviews how this law has been made more plausible over time by Newton and those who succeeded him. Contains 25 references. (DDR)

Analyzes students' misunderstanding of basic thermodynamic concepts on historical grounds. Finds that the persistence of some ideas from the caloric model are reinforced by magnitude names and unit definitions that were brought up at the early stages of thermodynamic development. Explores the failure of many popular textbooks to make a clear…

Addresses Lawson's (2002) interpretations of Galileo's discovery of the moons of Jupiter and other cases that exhibit historical errors. Suggests that such cases can distort history and lessons about the nature of science. (SOE)

Presents a brief overview of historical and cross-cultural data that points to the universality of some main physics conceptions. Summarizes articles from the science education literature that emphasize the relevance and influence of a number of cultural factors, such as language, world view and traditional beliefs, reasoning patterns, and…

Discusses some core features of Aristotelian physics and looks at their transformation by first Galileo and then Newton. It shows how the Aristotelian view was rooted in commonsense and indicates the reason that such understandings prove so resistant to physics instruction. Some suggestions are made for guiding effective pedagogy. (Author/PR)

Presents a model to analyze conceptual evolution in the classroom, based on the notion of conceptual profile. Suggests that it is possible to use different ways of thinking in different domains, a new concept does not necessarily replace previous ideas, and learning science is to change a conceptual profile and become conscious of different zones…

Compares the ideas of young people about Newton's third law, focusing on youth of today and youth of the 17th and 18th centuries. Examines the use of Newton's third law in understanding impact phenomena in the 17th and 18th centuries. Contains 46 references. (DDR)

Provides teachers with some ideas about the development of physical knowledge to make them more receptive to the differences between their own and their students' thinking. Illustrates an adapted version of Piaget's model of the growth of physical knowledge using the development of classical mechanics. Contains 12 references. (Author/JRH)

Discusses a hermeneutical approach to science education that deals with the "misconceptions" problem. Addresses text interpretation and ontological phenomenology, the role of original papers and textbooks, hermeneutics and the history of science, and the use of a hermeneutical approach that bridges the life world and science world for the student.…

Reports on a study that constructs a Lakatosian teaching strategy that can facilitate conceptual change in students' understanding of chemical equilibrium. Results indicate that the experimental group performed better on tests. Contains 81 references. (DDR)

Establishes a relationship between students' understanding of gases and its parallels in the history of science. Finds that college freshman students' alternative conceptions about gas behavior are resistant to change and recapitulate theories scientists held in the past, such as the Lattice Theory of Gases. (Contains 52 references.) (Author/WRM)

Highlights students' ideas about the particle model of matter and its use. Discusses the atomic model in teaching and the rules of the particle modeling game. Demonstrates how a complete understanding of the rules of the model construction yields guidelines for didactic practice. Focuses on problems connected with visual communication through…

Reports on research designed to discover whether certain conceptual difficulties experienced by present day students in the realm of action at a distance are parallel to the experiences of scientists in previous generations. Contains 60 references. (DDR)

Reconstructs students' and teachers' understanding of the structure of the atom based on a framework characterized by considering the history of science as competing research programs and by believing that some great scientific research programs progress on inconsistent foundations. Contains 107 references. (DDR)