Knowledge about students’ conceptions is oneof the requisite components of pedagogical contentknowledge. A keen awareness of students’ alternativeconceptions provides teachers with information aboutprospective difficulties students may incur as they makeattempts to learn more accurate scientific representations ofcritical concepts. In this study, we investigated elementaryschool teachers’ understanding of their students’ alterna-tive conceptions about change of states and dissolution.The subjects were 152 elementary school teachers and 529sixth graders in Korea. A conceptions test and the test ofthe understanding about students’ conceptions wereadministered in order to examine students’ alternativeconceptions and the teachers’ awareness of their students’alternative conceptions, respectively. The effects ofteachers’ characteristics such as teaching experience,highest academic degree, science teaching efficacy, andviews about teaching and learning (i.e., constructivist andtraditional) in relation to their awareness of students’alternative conceptions were also investigated. The resultsindicated that the teachers tended to overestimate thenumber of students with scientifically accepted concep-tions. The teachers also did not possess adequateknowledge about the existence and the distribution of theirstudents’ alternative conceptions. It was found that teach-ing experience, highest academic degree, science teachingefficacy, and the level of teachers’ adoption of a con-structivist view about teaching and learning were not sig-nificantly related to the their awareness of students’alternative conceptions. It was found, however, that there isa significant relationship between the level of teachers’traditional view about teaching and learning and theirawareness of students’ alternative conceptions. Educationalimplications are discussed

• A Study on the Elementary School Teachers’ Awarenessof Students’ Alternative Conceptions about Change of Statesand Dissolution