Tackling contradictions in teachers’ understanding of gravity and air resistance
- 1 January 1992
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Taylor & Francis Ltd in Evaluation & Research in Education
- Vol. 6 (2-3), 113-127
- https://doi.org/10.1080/09500799209533322
Abstract
Concerns over teachers’ knowledge of science, particularly their understanding of forces, are reviewed. The article reports a study which explored the understanding of gravity and air resistance among a group of primary teachers on an in‐service course. Two main misconceptions were identified. The first, that heavy objects fall more quickly than light ones, seemed to arise from seeing the effect of air resistance on the descent of light objects. The second, that gravity pulls all objects equally, seemed to arise from the observation that all objects which are heavy for their size fall at approximately the same rate. The idea that the forces from air resistance and gravity are balanced when terminal velocity is reached was also resisted by the teachers who felt that an object must be stationary when there is no resultant force. A sequence of teaching which tackled these misconceptions and the teachers’ difficulties with balanced forces was evaluated. The discussion considers ways in which such work may best be done with primary teachers to increase the knowledge base of the profession.Keywords
This publication has 7 references indexed in Scilit:
- Students’ concepts of force as applied to related physical systems: A search for consistencyInternational Journal of Science Education, 1991
- Primary teachers’ self‐perceptions concerning implementation of the National Curriculum for science in the UKInternational Journal of Science Education, 1990
- A survey of primary school teachers’ conceptions of force and motionEducational Research, 1990
- An Investigation of Some English Primary School Teachers’ Understanding of the Concepts Force and GravityBritish Educational Research Journal, 1990
- Primary teachers and the national curriculumResearch Papers in Education, 1989
- Those Who Understand: Knowledge Growth in TeachingEducational Researcher, 1986
- Prior knowledge and the learning of scienceStudies in Science Education, 1974