Re-Examining the Similarities Between Teacher and Student Conceptions About Physical Science

Abstract

There is a large body of research that has explored students’ misconceptions about science phenomena. Less research, however, has been devoted to identifying teachers’ misconceptions, but the results of the few existing studies demonstrate that teachers and students possess similar misconceptions. This study explored the physical science conceptions of 103 elementary science teachers to determine whether, after three decades of misconception research, teachers still possess conceptions similar to those held by students. We found that our teachers expressed misconceptions regarding gravity, magnetism, gases, and temperature that were similar to common student misconceptions. Suggestions for improving science professional development programs are discussed.

Keywords:

• Science misconceptions
• Teacher misconceptions
• Professional development
• Teacher content knowledge
• Physical science

Acknowledgments

We thank Toni Sondergeld at The University of Toledo for her assistance in analyzing the multiple-choice items used in this study. We also thank the Ohio Department of Education Math and Science Partnership Program for its financial support of this study.