Analyzes conceptions of energy of physics students' in a pre-service teacher training program. Findings indicate that the students are considerably anthropocentric in their associations, their choice of pictures, and their alternative conceptions and hold a number of different, alternative conceptions when describing physical situations. Contains…

Considers the process of conceptual change and describes empirical studies into children's naive theories of physics concepts. Uses the Representational Redescription model to explain how naive theories are a feature of conceptual change. Provides a starting point for considering how children's naive theories might mediate their ability to learn…

Combined free response questionnaire and interview procedure are used to probe students' ideas regarding how they believe they see both luminous and nonluminous objects and how they think they hear source of sound. From large sample of students studied (n=1901), prevalence of ideas in different age groups is compared, and progression can be seen.…

Explores the language used by teachers to denote various forces and investigates possible misconceptions they might hold about force and motion. Results indicate that biology and chemistry specialists hold the most misconceptions. Contains 17 references. (DDR)

This study reports a new analysis of data on children's ideas about direct current (DC) electrical circuits. The analysis is theoretically informed by Piagetian stage theory of genetic epistemology. The limits of the genetic epistemology are discussed. (KR)