Science teachers' alternate conceptions about direct-currents

Abstract

Over the past three decades a number of studies have investigated alternative conceptions held by students as well as teachers in the fields of the physical, biological, as well as the earth sciences. Most of the studies were conducted in the UK, USA, New Zealand and Australia. More studies on alternative conceptions have been conducted on students rather than teachers. Alternative concepts have become a major focus of classroom based research studies in light of current trends towards more interactive science teaching and learning. More recently, many countries, other than the ones mentioned above, are bringing about a change in classroom practice through teacher education. Pakistan is one of these countries actively involved. This paper reports on a qualitative research study carried out in 1998 on alternative conceptions (ACs) held by a select group of middle school (teachers of classes VI-VIII; age range of students 12-16 years) teachers. The topic focus was current electricity and the study was designed to identify the nature and origin of the ACs of these teachers and to relate them to other similar studies carried out by other researchers.