Primary Teachers' Particle Ideas and Explanations of Physical Phenomena: The Effect of an In-Service Training Course

George Papageorgiou (1) , Dimitrios Stamovlasis (2) , Phil Michael Johnson (3)

1 Department of Primary education
2 Department of Primary Education
3 School of Education

This paper presents a study concerning Greek primary school teachers' (n=162) ideas about the particulate nature of matter and their explanations of physical phenomena. The study took place during an in-service training course where the effectiveness of a specially designed intervention was tested. A key feature was an approach based on the concept of a substance and its states rather than ‘solids, liquids and gases'. Pre-intervention, the teachers held misconceptions similar to those of pupils. Also, there seemed to be some relationship between the teachers' particle model ideas and their explanations of phenomena. Post-intervention, the teachers' descriptions and explanations were found to be significantly improved, with almost zero correlation between pre and post intervention scores. Implications for science education are discussed.

Mots clés: Social Sciences & Humanities

George Papageorgiou, Dimitrios Stamovlasis, Phil Michael Johnson. Primary Teachers' Particle Ideas and Explanations of Physical Phenomena: The Effect of an In-Service Training Course. International Journal of Science Education, 2010, 32 (05), pp.629-652. ⟨10.1080/09500690902738016⟩. ⟨hal-00568409⟩