misconceptions of physical science concepts among elementary school teachers

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Misconceptions of Physical ScienceConcepts Among Elementary SchoolTeachers

Frances Lawrenz

There has been much discussion overthe "crisis" in science education(AAAS, 1982; Yager et al., 1982). Thereare already shortages of qualified sci-ence teachers and these are projected tobe worse in the future (Akin, 1982;Porter, 1981; Coleman and Selby,1982). The picture is especially bleak forthe physical sciences (Layman, 1982).More and more of the responsibility forscience education will fall to teachers al-ready in the field, who may not be ade-quately prepared to deal with it. If qual-ity science education is to be available,

science educators in the colleges and in the schools will have to work together to

develop appropriate enrichment programs.Because science is a discipline that builds on previous knowledge, the elemen-

tary school plays a fundamental role in the educational system. If students aren*texposed to quality science education in their beginning years, they will be at asignificant disadvantage later. The importance of the elementary school teacherto science education is not a new concept. Much effort has already been spent topromote science education in the lower grades, e.g., SCIS, ESS, SAPA.

Traditionally, elementary school teachers have not been avid supporters of sci-ence education. Often their own backgrounds in science, particularly physicalscience, are weak and laboratory-oriented science education is time consuming inan already filled school day. Fortunately, in the past there have been some ele-mentary school teachers who provided stimulation to their less enthusiastic col-leagues to encourage science education. With the coming shortages, however,there will be fewer of these teachers available and consequently the elementaryschool will become even more fertile ground for training programs formed fromthe collaboration ofcollege-and-school-based science educators.

In order to counteract the effect of the coming crisis, planning for elementaryscience teacher inservice training should begin now. The purpose of this study isto document the physical science status of elementary school teachers in order toprovide a starting point for the enrichment activities to come. These baseline

School Science and MathematicsVolume 86 (8) December 1986

Physical Science Concepts 655

data about the existing state of knowledge of elementary school teachers willhelp science educators to optimize the effectiveness of their inservice programs.

Procedure

The teachers in this study were 333 elementary school teachers from throughoutArizona who were participating in a physical science inservice training program.The program consisted of classes in science content and science classroom activ-ities that were offered in eighteen different school districts. The districts coveredthe continuums from rural to metropolitan, poor to wealthy and small to large.All school districts in the State had been invited to participate and the final selec-tion of districts was based on geographical representation.

All of the teachers in the local district classes completed a teacher question-naire and a Physical Science Test (PST). The teacher questionnaire was used toobtain demographic information and the PST was used to assess the existingstate of knowledge about physical science. The PST was given before the coursebegan.The PST was constructed from the National Assessment of Educational Prog-

ress (NAEP, 1978) released items for physical science for 17 year olds. Theseitems were carefully developed by NAEP to represent all aspects of physical sci-ence and as such have high content validity. They were also designed to assess theconceptual component of science content instead of the mathematical one. ThePST consisted of 31 multiple choice items on various topics in physics and chem-istry with a Kuder Richardson reliability for these data of .8.

Results and Discussion

The teachers in the sample were mostly female (72%) with bachelors degrees inelementary education (65%). They had from 1 to 33 years of experience teachingwith 60% having taught 10 years or less. Forty-seven percent reported havingmasters degrees, again usually with a major in elementary education (56%). Theteachers were asked to report their current teaching situation. The grade distribu-tion reported was fairly even from K-9 with 6th grade being the most commonlytaught (14%). Also most of the teachers taught in self contained classrooms(73%). If they were in departmentalized situations, they most often taught sci-ence. The number of minutes spent teaching science per week ranged from tenminutes to full time but this included the full time science teachers. It is more in-structive to look at the number of minutes self contained classroom teachers re-ported spending teaching science. These teachers reported teaching science amaximum of one period per school day and sixty percent reported teaching 90minutes per week or less.These teachers appear to be generally representative of elementary school

teachers and the characteristics reported are similar to those reported for a ran-dom sample of teachers (Lawrenz, 1985). It should be kept in mind, however,


656 Physical Science Concepts

that these teachers were probably positively biased toward science. They had vol-untarily enrolled in a science course and did seem to teach science fairly often.The results of the PST showed that the teachers understood some of the physi-

cal science concepts but not others. The number of teachers answering each ofthe 31 items correctly ranged from 90% for one item to 34% for another. Ac-cording to the NAEP data, the percentage of 17-year-olds answering the sameitems correctly ranged from 75% to 21%. These percentages represent a meanscore of 14 for the 17-year-olds in the NAEP national sample. The mean score onthe test for the elementary school teachers was 19 (48th percentile) and scoresranged from 5 to 30. Two thirds of the teachers scored 21 or below. More than50% of the teachers responded correctly to items about atomic structure, off-center balancing, averaging, lenses, batteries, density, stars, heat exchange, and

chemical reactions. As was mentioned before, the NAEP items were designed to

assess understanding of basic science concepts in a nonmathematical manner.The specific items referred to here are available from NAEP or the author andtherefore will not be specified in detail.

In contrast, eleven items of the 31 were answered correctly by 50% or less ofthe teachers. These items are presented in Table 1 along with the percentage ofteachers choosing each response. Some of the items could be considered fairlycontent specific or fact oriented and missing those may just be due to lack of in-formation or unfamiliarity with the terms, i.e., items 20, 21, 23, 25, 28, and 29.

TABLE IPhysical Science Items Missed by 50%

or More of (he Elementary School Teachers

Percent of teacherschoosing each

ITEM response

7. When there is a sfeacfy, direct current in a wire, which of thefollowing statements is true?A. Charges pile up in the wire. 12%B. A steady electric field appears around the wire. 38%C. A steady magnetic field appears around the wire. 34%D. An electromagnetic wave radiates away from the wire. 16%

20. A gas with a molecular structure XX is mixed with another gashaving a molecular structure 00, as show^ is the diagram be-low. (XX’s in one box and 00’s in another).

Which one of the following diagrams best represents a mixtureof the two gases?A. OXO’sinabox 13%B. XOX’sinabox 8%C. 00’s and XX’s in a box 50%D. 0’s and X’s in a box 28%


Physical Science Concepts

21. On which one of the following temperature scales is a one-de-gree temperature change a smaller change than on the others?A. CentigradeB. FahrenheitC. Kelvin

23. A metal plate is uncharged. If the plate gains electrons, theplate willA. be neutral.B. be negatively charged.C. be positively charged.D. alternate between being positively and negatively charged.

24. An iron container is evacuated and weighed. Then it is filledwith hydrogen gas and weighed again. The weight of the con-tainer full of hydrogen compared to the weight of the evac-uated container isA. less.B. greaterC. the same.D. greater or less depending on the volume of the gas in the

container.E. greater or less depending on the temperature of the gas in

the container.25. The picture on a television screen results from

A. atoms striking the screen.B. x-rays striking the screen.C. electrons striking the screen.D. light rays striking the screen.

26. Two steel balls of the same size and mass are on a level friction-free surface. At first, ball A is moving to the right at a speed of10 meters per second and ball B is standing still. Ball A collideshead-on with ball B. Which one of the following describes thespeed and direction of ball A after the head-on collision?A. Ball A is stopped.B. Ball A is moving to the left at a speed of 10 meters per sec-

ond.C. Ball A is moving to the right at a speed of 10 meters per

second.D. Ball A is moving to the right, but its speed is slightly less

than 10 meters per second.E. Ball A is moving to the left, but its speed is slightly greater

than 10 meters per second.

27. Suppose that a rubber balloon filled with air does not leak andthat it is taken from Earth to the Moon. One can be sure thaton the Moon, the balloon will have the sameA. size as on Earth.B. mass as on Earth.C. weight as on Earth.D. rate of fall as on Earth.E. ability to float as on Earth.



28. Scientists have been studying the nature of light for several cen-turies. Based on the evidence accumulated up to this time, it isprobably BEST to say thatA. light is a wave. 32%B. light is a stream of particles. 11%C. light is both a particle and a wave. 19%D. light simultaneously acts like a particle and a wave. 38%

29. The closed chemical system shown by the equation below is indynamic equilibrium at a certain temperature and pressure.This means thatA. all molecular activity has stopped. 6%B. all of the NO and 02 have reacted to form N02. 13%C. the number of molecules of N02 is equal to the number of

molecules of NO. 9%D. the rate of the reaction from left to right is equal to the rate

of the reaction from right to left. 49%E. the number of molecules of gases on the left in the equation

is equal to the number of molecules on the right. 23%

31. Iron combines with oxygen to form rust. One should thereforefind that rust weighsA. the same as the iron it came from. 10%B. the same as the oxygen it came from. 6%C. less than the iron it came from. 46%D. less than the oxygen it came from. 2%E. more than the iron it came from. 36%

Other items, however, do not require content specific knowledge and appear tobe indicative of serious misconceptions. In this context a misconception is a sit-uation where a common sense belief (one based on extensive personal experience)about a science phenomenon competes with the "correct" belief.

Items 24 and 31 and to a lesser extent item 27 seem to indicate that the teachershad a misconception about mass particularly as it relates to gases. Many teachersseemed to believe that adding a "gas" to something would make it lighter. Thisis probably due to concrete experience with balloons which appear to get lighterwhen "gas" is added to them. The misconception may go deeper, however. Adifferent item asked what the final weight of a mixture of 20 Ibs. of water andone pound of salt would be. Only 54% answered 21 pounds, 28% thought add-ing the salt would not change the weight, i.e., answered 20 pounds, and 15%thought the final weight was unpredictable. Perhaps because of life experiencesthe teachers knew that adding the salt would not change the volume, i.e., the saltwould dissolve and disappear, and therefore many felt that the mass would notchange or would change unpredictably. These items do seem to support the exist-ence of a misconception about the nature of substances and conservation ofmass.


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Item 26 appears to indicate a misconception about motion. Thirty-six percentof the teachers believed that one ball would continue to move after directly hit-ting another one. This indication is further supported by another item which askswhat path a ball would follow if it hit a wall at a particular angle. Only 63% ofthe teachers answered that item correctly. Misconceptions about mechanicalphysics concepts and motion have been previously documented (Champagne,Klopfer and Anderson, 1980, Clement, 1982; Halloun and Hestenes, 1985b) so itis likely that the results for these items are representative of that general patternof misunderstanding.A third possible misconception is represented by item 7 and in some ways by

item 23, 25 and 28. This misconception is not as clearly indicated as the othertwo but it appears that there is a lack of understanding or a confusion about thenature of electromagnetic phenomena/electricity/light that goes deeper than justlack of specific content knowledge.The results of this study help to support the belief that elementary school

teachers may not have adequate backgrounds in physical science. Even thoughthe teachers reported on here had strong educational backgrounds (e.g., 47Vomasters degrees) and were positively inclined toward science, they did not dowell on the exam overall and there seemed to be two, possibly three, areas wheremajor misconceptions of science concepts existed. The NAEP items on the PSTwere designed to assess fundamental physical science topics that would be cov-ered in most science programs and therefore these negative results are particular-ly revealing. If the teachers do not understand elementary physical science con-cepts, how can they be expected to teach their students?

In order to maintain quality physical science education in the face of the in-creasing shortages of qualified science teachers, presently employed elementaryschool teachers will have to become better prepared in the physical sciences. Thistranslates into inservice training, but how? First the school district must be madeaware of the impending crisis and need for education so that they will providethe support and encouragement necessary for their teachers to benefit from thetraining. Without district commitment only those teachers personally interestedin science will participate. Also, unless the district supports science education inthe classroom, students wil not benefit from their teachers’ training. Second, col-leges must tailor the training to fit the needs of the teachers. As demonstratedhere, the level of physical science knowledge appears to be fairly low, so inserv-ice courses need to begin with very basic concepts. The existence of misconcep-tions probably indicates that many science facts that were perhaps studied werenot understood or were not incorporated into the teacher’s belief systems. Theymay have learned at one time that gases have weight, but they never changedtheir thought pattern from the experience related belief that adding gases makesthings lighter (i.e., float). In order to change their belief patterns the teachersmust become personally involved in the concept. They must be given the oppor-tunity to make predictions based on their personal belief patterns and then be



presented with concrete experiences which conflict with these misconceptions sothat they will be forced to reassess their beliefs. Otherwise they may never realizethat the two beliefs are, in fact, contradictory (Halloun and Hestenes, 1985;Champagne and Klopfer, 1982). Further, the teachers must be shown and givennumerous examples of how to conduct this type of training in their own class-rooms. They must try to determine what their students believe and provide con-crete experiences that will confirm or contradict those beliefs.

References

Akin, J. N. Teacher supply and demand. A recent study, ASCUS Report. January 1982.American Association for the Advancement of Science. Toward Better Science and Mathe-

matics Education in America: a Call for Coalition. (Summary report conference ofAAAS affiliates). Washington, D.C.: AAAS, May 1982.

Champagne, A. B., Klopfer, L. E. and Anderson, J. H. Factors Influencing the Learningof Classical Mechanics. American Journal of Physics, 1980,48:1074-1079.

Champagne, A. B. and Klopfer, L. E. A Casual Model of Students Achievement in a Col-lege Physics Course. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 1982,19:299-309.

Clement, J. Students Preconceptions in Introductory Mechanics. American Journal ofPhysics, 1982. 50:66-71.

Coleman, W. T. and Selby, C. C. Today’s Problems, Tomorrow’s Crises, National Sci-ence Board Commission On Precollege Education in Mathematics Science and Technol-ogy Report. National Science Foundation, Washington, D.C. 20550.1982.

Halloun, I. A. and Hestenes, D. The Initial Knowledge State of College Physics Students.American Journal of Physics, 1985. 53:1043-1055.

Halloun, I. A. and Hestenes, D. Common Sense Concepts about Motion. American Jour-nal of Physics, 1985b, 53:1056-1065.

Lawrenz, F. P. Teacher to Student Transfer in Energy Education. School Science andMathematics, January, 1986, 1.

Layman, J. W. Crisis in Physics Teaching. Report to the American Association of PhysicsTeachers Crisis Committee, Washington, D.C. October 1982.

National Assessment of Educational Progress. The Third Assessment of Science 1976-77Released Exercise Set, 1978, ED 161686 Box 2923, Princeton, New Jersey 08541.

Porter, B. F. Manpower Statistics Division Report, American Institute of Physics, NewYork, New York, 1981.

Yager, R. E., Bybee, R., Gallagher, J. J. and Renner, J. W. An Analysis of the CurrentCrisis in the Discipline of Science Education. Journal of Research in Science Teaching,19(5):377-397.

Frances LawrenzUniversity of MinnesotaMinneapolis, Minnesota 55455


misconceptions of physical science concepts among elementary school teachers

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