Record Detail

Knowledge about students’ conceptions is one
of the requisite components of pedagogical content
knowledge. A keen awareness of students’ alternative
conceptions provides teachers with information about
prospective difficulties students may incur as they make
attempts to learn more accurate scientific representations of
critical concepts. In this study, we investigated elementary
school teachers’ understanding of their students’ alternative
conceptions about change of states and dissolution.
The subjects were 152 elementary school teachers and 529
sixth graders in Korea. A conceptions test and the test of
the understanding about students’ conceptions were
administered in order to examine students’ alternative
conceptions and the teachers’ awareness of their students’
alternative conceptions, respectively. The effects of
teachers’ characteristics such as teaching experience,
highest academic degree, science teaching efficacy, and
views about teaching and learning (i.e., constructivist and
traditional) in relation to their awareness of students’
alternative conceptions were also investigated. The results
indicated that the teachers tended to overestimate the
number of students with scientifically accepted conceptions.
The teachers also did not possess adequate
knowledge about the existence and the distribution of their
students’ alternative conceptions. It was found that teaching
experience, highest academic degree, science teaching
efficacy, and the level of teachers’ adoption of a constructivist
view about teaching and learning were not significantly
related to the their awareness of students’
alternative conceptions. It was found, however, that there is
a significant relationship between the level of teachers’
traditional view about teaching and learning and their
awareness of students’ alternative conceptions. Educational
implications are discussed.