The paper is framed within a broader research programme aimed at investigating how science education can enhance the formation of what we call future-scaffolding skills: the abilities to construct visions of the future that support possible ways of acting in the present with one's eye on the horizon. To this end, we designed a module (targeted at…

This article presents an approach to teaching "motion and inertia." The teaching strategy consists of four phases: (1) orientation; (2) eliciting children's ideas; (3) restructuring of ideas; and (4) improving and applying. Samples of students' ideas on the concept of mechanics are provided. Lists 11 references. (YP)

Investigates commonsense knowledge schemes connecting the elements weight, air, and gravity to the phenomena of free fall of a range of students from primary school children to adults. Finds that majority of people from the secondary education level onwards held alternative schemes. Discusses educational impacts of mass media. (Author/YP)